THE  MORAL  AND 
RELIGIOUS  CHALLENGE 
F  OUR  TIMES 

iNRY  CHURCHILL  KING 


BR  115  .S6  K56  1911         ^ 
King,  Henry  Churchill,  1858- 

The  moral  and  religious 
challenge  of  our  times 


THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS 
CHALLENGE  OF  OUR  TIMES 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS 
CHALLENGE  OF  OUR  TIMES 


THE   GUIDING   PRINCIPLE   IN   HUMAN 

DEVELOPMENT: 

REVERENCE   FOR   PERSONALITY 


BY 
HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

PRESIDENT  OF   OBERLIN   COLLEGE 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1911 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  December,  1911. 


J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

As  its  double  title  indicates,  this  book  seeks  to 
enable  the  thoughtful  reader  to  orient  himself 
morally  and  religiously,  with  reference  to  all  the 
main  features  of  the  modern  world ;  and  to  give 
him,  at  the  same  time,  a  guiding  clue  in  that  orien- 
tation. The  aim  involves  a  wide  survey ;  but  the 
changes  of  our  time  have  been  so  large  and  so 
significant,  that  it  seems  particularly  worth  while 
to  attempt  their  comprehensive  review.  In  our 
thinking,  in  our  living,  and  in  our  working  —  in 
all  ahke  —  we  need  not  only  intelligent  acquaint- 
ance with  the  world  conditions  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  are,  but  thoughtful  understanding  of 
them.  And  this  holds  for  the  nation  as  well  as 
for  the  individual.  Our  problems  are  not  those  of 
any  other  time.  We  need  to  know  just  what  they 
are,  what  peculiar  difficulties  are  involved,  and 
what  special  helps  are  available. 

There  have  been  here  undertaken,  therefore,  a 
somewhat  detailed  statement  of  the  outstanding 
characteristics  of  both  the  external  and  inner 
world  of  our  time,  and  a  definite  estimate  of  their 


VI  PREFACE 

moral  and  religious  bearings,  —  whether  taken 
singly  or  collectively.  In  the  study  of  these 
movements  of  our  age,  the  guiding  and  determin- 
ing nature  of  the  principle  of  reverence  for  per- 
sonality repeatedly  appears;  and  this  result  is 
confirmed  by  a  review  of  the  trend  of  the  centu- 
ries of  Western  civilization.  In  the  light  of  this 
entire  survey  it  is  then  sought  to  make  clear  the 
particular  demands  of  the  times  upon  our  own 
national  life  and  in  international  relations. 

The  book  had  its  nucleus  in  a  paper,  read  before 
the  Religious  Educational  Association,  upon  The 
Future  of  Religious  Education ;  and  its  problem 
was  constantly  in  mind,  in  a  year  of  travel  and 
study  and  lecturing  in  India,  China,  and  Japan ; 
while  much  of  the  substance  of  the  book  was  given 
in  the  Earl  Lectures  of  the  Pacific  Theological 
Seminary,  at  Berkeley,  CaHfornia,  in  19  lo.  But 
the  material  of  these  chapters  has  been  entirely 
restudied,  and  the  treatment  much  extended,  in 
order  to  deal  somewhat  more  adequately  with  the 
wide  range  of  questions  necessarily  raised.  I  can 
only  hope  that  I  have  not  quite  failed  to  do  justice 
to  the  greatness  of  my  theme.  The  present  days 
are  certainly  challenging  days ;  and  I  cannot  help 
wishing  that  this  book  may  aid  some,  not  only  to 
better  individual  living,  but  to  a  more  discerning 


PREFACE  Vll 

and  vital  patriotism,  and  to  sharing  more  intelli- 
gently and  more  unselfishly  in  the  world-life. 

How  great  one's  indebtedness  must  be  in  a 
world  survey,  needs  no  telling!  and  my  indebted- 
ness extends  not  to  books  only,  but  to  a  long  list 
of  friends  —  American,  English,  Indian,  Chinese 
and  Japanese  —  who  in  my  journey  around  the 
world  shared  with  me  their  best,  and  helped  me 
to  understand  that  there  are  great  likenesses  as 
well  as  great  differences  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  and  gave  me  a  new  sense  of  the  growing 
unity  of  the  world. 

HENRY   CHURCHILL  KING. 

Oberlin  College, 
September  19,  191 1. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

Reverence  for  Personality  —  The  Meaning  of 
THE  Guiding  Principle 

PAGE 

I.     A  Fundamental  Moral  Principle    ....         5 

II.     A  Basic  Christian  Assumption       ....         8 

III.     What  the  Principle  Demands        ....       10 

CHAPTER   II 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  Present 
External  Conditions  I :  The  New  External  Con- 
ditions and  their  Individual  Challenge 

I.     The  Main  Movements  of  the  Time        ...       16 

1.  The  Progressive  Conquest  over  the  Forces 

of  Nature 18 

2.  The  Stupendous  Economic  Development    .  19 

3.  The  World-wide  Economic  Solidarity          .  20 

4.  The  Enormous  Increase  of  Wealth      .         .  22 

5.  The  National  Conservation  of  Natural  Re- 

sources   .......  24 

6.  The  Inevitable  Growth  of  the  Cities    .         .  26 

7.  The  Far  Finer  Division  of  Labor         .         .  29 

8.  The  Indefinitely  Closer  Connections  of  Men 

the  World  Over 30 

9.  The  Increasing  Association  of  the  Races     .       33 
10.    The   Extending   Application    of    Scientific 

Discoveries  for  the  Betterment  of  Human 
Life 37 


S  CONTENTS 

11.  The  Trend  toward  Universal  Education 

12.  The   Movement   for   the   Advancement   of 

Women  ...... 

13.  The    Modern    Foreign    Missionary   Move 

ment 

II.     Resulting  Changes  among  the  Nations 

X.    The  Rise  of  Japan       .... 

2.  Turkey's  Marvelous  Peaceful  Revolution 

3.  Similar  National  Changes  in  Russia,  China, 

and  Persia       ..... 

4.  The  "Rise  of  the  Native"  . 

5.  The  Increasing  Democratic  Trend 

6.  The  Socialistic  and  Nihilistic  Movements 

7.  The  Commercial  Pressure  on  Political  and 

Diplomatic  Action  .... 

8.  The  Growing  Sense  of  Responsibility  on 

the  Part  of  the  Stronger  Nations 

9.  The  Greater  Influence  of  International  Criti 

cism        ...... 

10.    The  Progress  of  International  Arbitration 
ir.    The  Pressure  of  the  Far  Eastern  Question 

12.  The  Rising  Moral  Standards  in  the  United 

States      ...... 

13.  A  Socialized  Individualism 


39 

41 

43 
46 
47 
50 

50 
51 
57 
59 

60 
62 

63 
64 
67 

74 
75 


CHAPTER   III 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  Present 
External  Conditions  II :  The  Comprehensive 
Challenge  of  the  New  External  Conditions 

I.     Their  Meaning 79 

1 .  Staggering  Resources  of  Power  and  Wealth  79 

2.  Increased  Comfort  and  Ease  of  Life    .         .  80 

3.  The  Possibility  of  Greater  Leisure       .         .  80 

4.  More  Numerous  and  More  Complex  Rela- 

tions         81 


CONTENTS  XI 


5.  Forced  Interdependence  and  Cooperation 

6.  Universal  Education  and  Great  Ideal  Enter- 

prises       ...... 

II.     The  Dangers  and  Problems  Involved    . 

1.  The  Problem  of  the  Better  Distribution  of 

Wealth 

2.  The  Separation  of  Work  and  Happiness 

3.  The  Peril  of  the  Lower  Attainment 

4.  The  "  Passion  for  Material  Comfort "    . 

5.  The  Insane  Rush  of  Our  Times    . 

6.  The  Sense  of  the  Complexity  of  Life     . 

7.  The  Sense  of  the  Conflicting  Ideals  of  Our 

Time         ...... 

8.  Lack  of  the  Sense  of  Law  in  the  Moral  anc 

Spiritual  World  .... 

9.  The  Problem  of  Race  Prejudices  and  An 

tagonisms  ..... 

III.     The  Qualities  Demanded      .... 

1.  Self-control,  Severely  Disciplined  Powers 

2.  Greater  Simplicity  of  Life 

3.  The  Social  Virtues        .... 

4.  Grappling  with  Race  Prejudice 

5.  Unselfish  Leadership    .... 


IV.     The  Elements  of  Encouragement 

1.  Recognition    of    the    Possibility    of    Great 

Achievements   ..... 

2.  The  Developing  Power  of  Large  Tasks  .     102 

3.  The  Scientific  Study  of  Human  Conditions  .     104 

4.  Forced  Cooperation 104 

5.  The  Possibility  of  Greater  Leisure         .         .     105 

6.  The  Educational  Influence  of  the  Press         .     106 

7.  The  Trend  toward  Universal  Education  and 

Great  World  Enterprises  .         .         .         .109 


PAGB 
81 

82 

83 

84 

86 
86 
87 


90 

90 

91 

92 

93 
95 
96 

97 


XU  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  the  New 
Inner  World  of  Thought  I :  The  Factors  of  the 
New  Inner  World  and  their  Individual  Chal- 
lenge 

PAGE 

I.     Natural  Science  and  Evolution      .         .         .         .114 

1.  The  Scientific  Method  of  Control  .         •     i'5 

2.  The  Moral  Significance  of  the  Scientific  Spirit     116 

3.  The  Religious  Significance  of  the  Scientific 

Spirit        . 118 

4.  Bringing   a  New   Sense   of  Reality  and  of 

Hope  into  the  Ideal  Realm        .         .         .     125 

5.  Bringing  a  New  Standard  of  Efficiency  into 

Moral  and  Religfious  Education 


II.     The  Historical  Spirit    .... 

1.  Its  Moral  Significance  . 

2.  Its  Religious  Significance 

III.     The  New  Psychology    .... 

1.  Disclosing  the  Laws  of  Man's  Nature 

2.  Giving  Definite  and  Concrete  Ideals 

3.  Particularly  needed  in  the  Orient 

4.  Inner  Health  Movement 


IV.     Sociology 

1.  A  Moral  Ideal  Involved' 

2.  Giving  Laws  of  the  Permanent  Progress  of 

the  Race  ...... 

3.  The  Elements  of  the  Social  Consciousness 


V.     Comparative  Religion  .         .         .         .         .         .146 

1.  The  Moral  Qualities  Demanded    .         .         .     146 

2.  Giving  an  Organic  Ideal  of  Religious  Truth  .     146 

3.  The  Permanence  of  Religion         .         .         .     147 

4.  Using  the  Entire  Religious  Consciousness  of 

the  Race 151 


131 
134 
135 
^37 

139 
139 
140 
140 
141 

142 
143 

143 

144 


CONTENTS  Xm 

PAGE 

VI.     The  Philosophical  Trend 153 

VII.     The  Theological  Trend 156 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  the  New 
Inner  World  of  Thought  II :  The  Comprehensive 
Challenge  of  the  Factors  of  the  New  World 
of  Thought 

I.     The  Meaning  of  the  New  Inner  World         •         .     160 

1.  Makes  the  Moral  and  Religious  Life  More 

Sure  and  Significant         ....  160 

2.  The  Need  of  Time  and  Thought  .         •  162 

3.  Building  upon  Freedom  of  Conscience         .  163 

4.  Disclosing  the  Great  Principles  of  Human 

Progress 164 

5.  Reverence    for    Personality    the    Essential 

Guiding  Principle    .....     164 
(i)   Source  of  the  Other  Elements  of  the 

Social  Consciousness     .         .         .     165 

(2)  Seen  in  the  Historical  Trend    .         .166 

(3)  Christian,    Ethical,    Scientific,    Psy- 

chological      167 

II.  The  Dangers  and  Problems  Involved  .         .         -174 

1.  The  Danger  of  the  False  Materialistic  and 

Atheistic  Inferences  from  Modern  Science     175 

2.  The  Danger  of  a  Purely  Utilitarian  Point  of 

View 176 

3.  The  Danger  of  Withstanding  All  the  Newer 

Knowledge I77 

4.  The  Sense  of  Conflicting  Ideals  .         .         .     178 

5.  The  Peril  of  the  Lower  Attainment     .         .     179 

III.  The  Qualities  Demanded 179 

I,    Clear  Insight  into  the  Always  Difficult  Prob- 
lems of  a  Critical  Transition  Period  .     179 


I8l 


XIV  CONTENTS 

2.  A  Breadth  of  View  that  is  still  Sharply  Dis- 

criminating         

3.  The  Qualities  of  the  Social  Consciousness     .     181 

IV.     The  Elements  of  Encouragement  .         .         .182 

1.  A  Virtual  Moral  and  Religious  Development     182 

2.  Definite  Direction  Given       .         .         .         .182 

3.  Revelation  of  the  Inevitable  Spiritual  Quali- 

ties of  Men 182 

4.  The   Scientific   Spirit  and  the  Social  Con- 

sciousness        .         .         .        .        .         -183 

V.     Educational  Applications 183 

1.  Inwardness  of  the  Moral  and  Spiritual  Life  .     183 

2.  Certain  Educational  Demands      .         .         .184 

3.  The   Eternal   Significance  of  Life   and  the 

World 186 

CHAPTER   VI 

The  Lessons  of  the  Historical  Trend  of 
Western  Civilization 

L  The  Suggestions  coming  from  the  More  Important 
Contrasts  between  Ancient  and  Modern  Civili- 
zation        191 

1.  The  Characteristic  Features  of  the  Ancient 

Period 192 

2.  The  Outstanding  Features  of  the  Modern  Age     194 

3.  The    Moral-Religious    Significance    of    the 

Ancient  Exclusive  State  .         .         .  .196 

(i)  Closest  Possible  Ties           .         .  -197 

(2)  A  Definite  Moral-Religious  Basis  .     198 

(3)  Special    Effectiveness    depended  on 

Freedom  for  Individual  Initiative    .     200 

(4)  Its  Great  Defects,  Exclusiveness  and 

Domination  of  Individuals       .         .     203 

4.  The  Bringing  in  of  Christianity    .         .         .     206 

(i)  Brings  in  Fundamental  Reverence  for 

Personality     .....     206 


CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

(2)  So  corrects  Defects  of  Ancient  Exclu- 

sive State 208 

(3)  Gives  naturally  the  New  Conception 

of  Truth 209 

(4)  Freedom  of  Initiative  supplemental  to 

Cooperation    .....     209 

II.  The  Suggestions  coming  from  Well-recognized 
Instances  of  Mistaking,  at  First,  the  Full  Mean- 
ing and  Proper  Application  of  the  Principles 
Underlying  Western  Civilization       .         .         .212 

1.  The  Early  Attempt  to  interpret  Christianity 

in  Ascetic  Terms 213 

2.  The  Mediaeval  Conception  of  the  Absolute 

Dominion  of  the  Church  ....     214 

3.  The   Reformation  Principle  of  Freedom  of 

Conscience        .         .         .         .         .         .215 

4.  The  Position  of  the  Manchester  School         .     217 

III.  The  Suggestions  coming  from  the  Relation  of  the 
Fundamental  Principles  and  Characteristics  of 
Present-day  Western  Civilization  to  Moral  and 
Religious  Convictions       .         .         .         .         .218 

1.  The  New  Conception  of  Truth  and  the  New 

Virtue  of  Toleration  ....  219 

2.  The  Native  Equality  of  All  Men  .         .         .  220 

3.  The  Wide  Extension  of  the  Franchise  .         .  220 

4.  The  Principles  of  Western  Liberalism  as  a 

Whole 221 

5.  The  General  Enfranchisement  of  All  Forms 

of  Human  Activity    .....     222 

6.  The  Immense  Interval  between  the  Ancient 

and  Modern  World 222 

7.  The  Recent  Advances  of  Western  Civilization     222 

8.  The  Trend    not   toward  a  Soft  and   Senti- 

mental Civilization    .....     224 

9.  Why  the  Forces  of  Righteousness   may  be 

expected  to  Prevail   .....     228 


/ 


XVI  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   VII 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  our  Own 
National  Life  I :  The  New  Puritanism 

PAGE 

I.     The  Great  Positives  of  the  Puritan  Spirit      .         .     243 

1.  The   Vision   of    God   and   of    the    Spiritual 

World 

2.  The  Conviction  of  Divine  Commission 

3.  The  Feeling  of  Responsibility  and  Account- 

ability       .......     245 

4.  The  Sense  of  the  Significance  and  Value  of 

Life 246 


243 
244 


n.     The  Reaction  from  Puritanism      ... 

1.  Sentimentalism     ......  248 

2.  A  False  Tolerance        .         .         .         .         .251 

(i)  Ignoring  the  Results  of  Experience     .  252 

(2)  Lack  of  Discrimination       .         .         .  253 

(3)  Lack  of  Conviction     ....  254 

(4)  A  Narrow  Intellectualism   .         .         .  255 

3.  A  False  Realism 256 

4.  A  False  Estheticism      .....  259 

in.     The  New  Puritanism,  adding  the  Great  Positives 

of  the  Modern  Spirit         .....  262 

1.  A  Genuine  and  Reverent  Love     .         .         .  265 

2.  Perception  of  the  Breadth  and  Complexity 

of  Life 266 

3.  Recognition  of  the  Unity  of  the  Life  of  Man, 

giving  the  True  Place  to  Self-denial        .  267 
(i)  The  Self-denial  needed  for  Mental  and 

Moral  Hygiene        ....  273 

(2)  The    Self-denial    demanded    by    the 

Community  Life      ....  274 

(3)  Keeping  Relative  Goods  in  the  Rela- 

tive Place        .....  276 

(4)  The    Clear     Recognition     of    Man's 

Heroic  Mold 276 


CONTENTS  XVH 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  our  Own  National 
Life  II :  The  Guiding  Principle  in  Race  An- 
tagonisms 

PAGE 

I.     Self-respect 286 

1.  The  Negro  must  Respect  Himself         .         .     286 

2.  The  White  must  Keep  his  Self-respect  .         .     297 

II.     Respect  for  the  Liberty  of  Others  .         .         .     303 

1.  Northerner  and    Southerner    must    respect 

Each  Other's  Liberties     ....     303 

2.  The  Whites  must  respect  the  Liberty  of  the 

Blacks 304 

III.     Respect  for  the  Inner  Personality  of  Others  .         .     305 

CHAPTER   IX 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  our  Own 
National  Life    III :   A  Truer  Democracy 

I.     A  Democratic  Policy  in  the  Conquest  of  Natural 

Forces     .         .         .         .         .         .         •         -316 

II.     A  Democratic  Policy  in  the  Use  of  Natural   Re- 
sources     319 

III.  A   Democratic   Policy  in   the   Control  of  Public 

Utilities 321 

IV.  A  Democratic  Policy  concerning  the  Concentra- 

tion of  Wealth  and  Power        .         .         .         -323 

V.     A   Democratic   Policy   concerning   Social  Malad- 
justments .......     331 

1 .  Our  Legal,  Legislative,  and  Judicial  Tradition     33 1 

2.  The  Control  of  Legislation  by  Business  In- 

terests        333 

3.  Economic  Abuses  .....     335 

4.  Contrasts  in    the   Economic    Conditions    of 

the  Rich  and  Poor 336 


XVUl  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Program  of  Western  Civilization  in  its  Spread 
OVER  THE  World  :  The  Guiding  Principle  in  In- 
ternational Life 

PAGE 

I.     The  Interaction  of  the  Economic  and  Religious  .     343 

1.  The  Two  Great  Forming  Agencies  in  the 

World's  History,  Religious  and  Economic     343 

2.  Western  Civilization  has  spread  on  these 

Two  Lines       ......     344 

3.  The  Economic  and  Religious  Motives         .     345 

4.  The  Religious  World  Movement  must  ac- 

company the  Economic  ....     346 

5.  How  European  Civilization  was  set  free  for 

its  World  Extension        ....     347 

6.  Western    Civilization   introduced    into   the 

Orient  for  Commercial  Reasons  and  by 
Force 348 

7.  The    East    faces    either  the   Adoption    of 

Western  Education  or  Exploitation        .     349 

II.     How  far  the  Far  East  has  taken  on  Western  Civ- 
ilization ........     350 


III.     Completion  of  the  World-wide  Extension  of  Com 
merce  and  Religion  .... 


IV.     Why  the  Orient  must  go  Further 

V.     Why  the  West   must  be    more   Christian  in  its 

Dealings  with  the  East    .....     365 

VI.     Transfer  of  Spirit  not  Forms  of  Civilization  .     374 

VII.     Religious  Conviction  needed  in  International  Re- 
lations      378 


358 
360 


THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS 
CHALLENGE  OF  OUR  TIMES 


THE  MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS 
CHALLENGE  OF  OUR  TIMES 

THE    GUIDING   PRINCIPLE   IN   HUMAN 

DEVELOPMENT:    REVERENCE   FOR 

PERSONALITY 

CHAPTER   I 

Reverence  for   Personality  —  The  Meaning 
OF  THE  Guiding  Principle 

The  writer  has  come  to  believe  that  the  principle 
of  reverence  for  personality  is  the  ruling  principle 
in  ethics,  and  in  religion ;  that  it  constitutes, 
therefore,  the  truest  and  highest  test  of  either  an 
individual  or  a  civilization ;  that  it  has  been,  even 
unconsciously,  the  guiding  and  determining  prin- 
ciple in  all  human  progress ;  and  that,  in  its 
religious  interpretation,  it  is,  indeed,  the  one  faith 
that  keeps  meaning  and  value  for  life.  If  this  is 
true,  this  principle  of  reverence  for  personality 
should  be  the  best  key  for  man's  discernment  of 
himself,  for  the  interpretation  of  history,  and  for 
the  understanding  of  God  in  all  his  relations  to 


2  THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

men.  When  the  principle  is  correctly  conceived, 
and  its  implications  definitely  grasped,  it  should 
then  be  able  to  give  the  surest  guidance  in  the 
multiplex  problems  of  the  present  —  personal, 
social,  economic,  political,  international,  and  re- 
ligious —  and  in  the  forecast  of  the  future  of  human 
development. 

The  fundamental  and  fruitful  nature  of  this 
thought  of  reverence  for  the  person  as  such, 
gradually  forces  itself  upon  one,  in  many  con- 
nections and  in  varied  lines  of  inquiry  —  psycho- 
logical, ethical,  sociological,  historical,  rehgious, 
and  theological.  There  has  been  no  attempt  to 
force  the  principle  upon  the  material  of  this  book. 
In  fact,  in  the  book's  original  planning,  there  was 
no  special  thought  of  a  single  underlying  principle. 
It  has  been  only  as  the  peculiarly  significant 
nature  of  this  idea  has  come  out  again  and  again 
in  the  course  of  the  inquiry,  that  it  has  been  recog- 
nized as  so  completely  determining;  though  there 
are,  of  course,  many  subsidiary  factors  and  prin- 
ciples. In  one  aspect,  the  spirit  of  reverence  for 
personality  is  the  characteristic  that  most  clearly 
distinguishes  the  modern  world  from  the  ancient, 
the  most  modern  from  the  mediaeval,  and  the 
Occident  from  the  Orient.     It,  thus,  vitally  con- 


REVERENCE  FOR  PERSONALITY        3 

cerns  our  own  present,  and  should  definitely  help 
to  conscious,  intelligent  cooperation  in  facing 
present-day  problems. 

Because,  then,  the  principle  of  reverence  for 
personality  comes  out  so  repeatedly  in  the  course 
of  our  inquiry,  and  because  it  is  believed  to  be  so 
truly  determining  —  though  it  is  not  to  be  used  in 
a  priori  fashion  —  it  is  of  peculiar  importance  that 
the  meaning  to  be  given  to  the  principle  should  be 
clearly  understood  from  the  start.  We  need  to 
see  how  fundamental  it  is  in  its  nature,  and  how 
fruitful  in  its  applications.  This  can  be  best  and 
most  quickly  discerned,  perhaps,  in  a  brief  study 
of  its  significance  in  the  individual  human  life.^ 
We  shall  then  be  better  prepared  to  see  and  under- 
stand its  varied  bearings  and  applications,  in  our 
larger  inquiry  as  to  moral  and  religious  develop- 
ment as  a  world  problem. 

The  incident,  in  John's  Gospel,  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery,  in  which  it  is  said  of  Jesus, 
that  he  "stooped  down  and  with  his  finger  wrote 
on  the  ground,"  illustrates,  in  a  single  case,  the 
response  of  Jesus  to  this  basic  and  eternal  prin- 
ciple of  reverence  for  the  person.     For  it  is  hardly 

^  For  a  fuller  discussion  see  the  author's  Rational  Living, 
pp.  236  ff. ;   and  The  Laws  of  Friendship,  Chap.  XVIII. 


4  THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

possible  to  misinterpret  this  action  of  Jesus,  as  he 
thus  stoops  down  and  writes  upon  the  ground. 
Any  one,  who  has  ever  felt  the  intolerable  sense  of 
shame  that  arises,  when  he  has  been  made  an  un- 
willing spectator  of  the  needless  public  humiliation 
and  breaking  down  of  the  self-respect  of  a  servant, 
a  child,  a  wife,  or  a  fellow  man,  —  will  know  what 
the  feeling  of  Jesus  must  have  been.  He  would 
not  share,  though  unwilUngly,  in  the  cruel,  brutal, 
needless  humiliation  of  even  a  sinful  woman,  by 
adding  to  her  load  of  shame,  so  much  as  the  weight 
of  his  pitying  look.  She  is  no  thing  that  she  should 
be  thus  bandied  about  of  men,  but  a  person,  her- 
self made  in  the  image  of  the  Eternal  God,  He 
could  not  bear  that  the  sanctities  of  her  inner  per- 
son should  be  thus  brutally  laid  open  to  the  brazen 
gaze  of  men,  though  she  be  an  open  sinner.  And 
the  conduct  here  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  this  inter- 
polated incident  in  the  Gospel  of  John  —  the 
present  position  of  which  no  critic  defends,  but  the 
inimitable  truth  of  which  none  denies  —  is  char- 
acteristic of  his  attitude  throughout  his  ministry. 
As  I  have  elsewhere  said,  "Jesus  seems  constantly 
to  be  standing,  with  a  kind  of  moral  shudder, 
between  the  spirit  of  contempt  in  the  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees,  and  the  outraged  personality  of 


REVERENCE  FOR  PERSONALITY         5 

the  common  people,  even  of  the  pubHcans  and 
sinners ;  he  feels  the  contempt,  even  for  these  least, 
as  a  blow  in  his  own  face." 


A  FUNDAMENTAL  MORAL   PRINCIPLE 

Now,  the  principle,  so  illustrated  in  the  spirit 
and  ministry  of  Jesus,  we  may  not  forget,  is  a 
fundamental  moral  principle.  For  there  must  be 
for  every  man,  in  Howison's  language,  "that 
recognition  and  reverence  for  the  personal  initia- 
tive of  other  minds,  which  is  at  once  the  sign  and 
test  of  the  true  person."  It  is  this  principle  which 
Kant  affirms  in  his  Practical  Imperative:  "So  act 
as  to  treat  humanity,  whether  in  thine  own  person 
or  in  that  of  any  other,  in  every  case  as  an  end 
withal,  never  as  a  means  only."  Hegel  reiterates 
the  thought  in  his  maxim:  "Be  a  person,  and 
respect  the  personahty  of  others."  It  is  blindness 
to  this  same  respect  for  the  person,  too,  of  which 
Professor  James  writes  so  piquantly  in  his  essay, 
On  a  Certain  Blindness  in  Human  Nature.  This 
sense  of  reverence  for  personality,  indeed,  Lotze 
believes,  has  been,  even  unconsciously,  the  guiding 
principle  in  all  the  moral  development  of  the  race. 


6  THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

He  finds  illustrations  of  it  at  many  points,  and 
says :  "The  deeper  our  insight  into  human  destiny 
becomes,  the  more  sacred  does  every  individual 
human  being  seem  to  us,  and  the  more  uncon- 
ditionally do  we  refuse  to  take  the  measure  of  his 
relative  worth.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  civilization  has 
set  upon  human  personality  that  seal  of  invio- 
lability which  the  perversity  of  a  state  of  Nature 
sometimes  sets  upon  external  objects ;  and  wher- 
ever our  conduct  is  not  actuated  by  this  sentiment, 
wherever  Law  and  Society  still  treat  individuals  as 
though  they  were  things,  there  our  civilization  is 
marred  by  a  remnant  of  barbarism,  and  there  we 
have  not  succeeded  in  vanquishing  the  principle  of 
barbarism  altogether."  ^ 

Royce  thus  applies  the  principle  in  the  personal 
life:  "Let  one  look  over  the  range  of  his  bare 
acquaintanceship;  let  him  leave  out  his  friends, 
and  the  people  in  whom  he  takes  a  special  personal 
interest;  let  him  regard  the  rest  of  his  world  of 
fellow -men,  —  his  butcher,  his  grocer,  the  police- 
man that  patrols  his  street,  the  newsboy,  the 
servant  in  his  kitchen,  his  business  rivals.  Are 
they  not  one  and  all  to  him  ways  of  behavior  toward 
himself  or  other  people,  outwardly  effective  beings, 
^  The  Microcosmus,  Vol.  II,  pp.  58,  59. 


REVERENCE  FOR  PERSONALITY        7 

rather  than  realized  masses  of  genuine  inner  sen- 
timent, of  love  or  of  felt  desire?  Does  he  not 
naturally  think  of  each  of  them  rather  as  a  way  of 
outward  action  than  as  a  way  of  inner  volition? 
His  butcher,  his  newsboy,  his  servant,  —  are  they 
not  for  him  industrious  or  lazy,  honest  or  deceitful, 
polite  or  uncivil,  useful  or  useless  people,  rather 
than  self-conscious  people?  Is  each  one  of  these 
alive  for  him  in  the  full  sense,  —  sentient,  emo- 
tional and  otherwise  like  himself,  as  perhaps  his 
own  son,  or  his  own  mother  or  wife,  seems  to  him 
to  be?  Is  it  not  rather  their  being  for  him,  not 
for  themselves,  that  he  considers  in  all  his  ordinary 
life  ?  Not  their  inner  volitional  nature  is  realized, 
but  their  manner  of  outward  activity.  Such  is  the 
nature  and  ground  of  the  illusion  of  selfishness." 
President  Hyde  hardly  overstates  the  matter 
when  he  says  that  this  passage  "lays  bare  the 
source  of  the  greater  part  of  the  social  immorality 
in  the  world,  and  accounts  for  nine-tenths  of  all 
the  world's  trouble."  ^  The  principle  of  reverence 
for  personality  is  certainly  a  fundamental  and  in- 
escapable moral  principle. 

1  The  College  Man  and  the  College  Woman,  p.  53. 


8  THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

II 

A  BASIC   CHRISTIAN  ASSUMPTION 

At  the  same  time  it  may  not  be  forgotten  that 
this  demand  for  reverence  for  the  person  as  such 
is  only  another  way  of  stating  Christianity's  own 
fundamental  assumption  of  the  essential  and  in- 
estimable worth  of  man.  In  Harnack's  language, 
"Jesus  Christ  was  the  first  to  bring  the  value  of 
every  human  soul  to  light,  and  what  he  did  no 
one  can  any  more  undo."  And  Wundt  adds,  to 
the  same  purport:  "Humanity  in  this  highest 
sense  was  brought  into  the  world  by  Christianity. 
Although  many  of  the  features  of  Christianity  have 
here  also  been  anticipated  in  Judaism,  still  the 
Jewish  virtue  of  compassion  never  shook  ofT  the 
chains  of  tribal  feeling  while  Christianity  enjoins 
the  love  of  all  mankind  as  a  duty  which  stands 
above  all  other  duties,  excepting  only  those  toward 
God  himself."  This  is  that  Christian  "enthusiasm 
of  humanity"  of  which  Ecce  Homo  speaks  :  "Being 
a  reverence  for  human  beings  as  such,  and  not  for 
the  good  qualities  they  may  exhibit,  it  embraces 
the  bad  as  well  as  the  good,  and  as  it  contemplates 
human  beings  in  their  ideal  —  that  is,  in  what 
they  might  be  —  it  desires  not  the  apparent,  but 


REVERENCE   FOR   PERSONALITY  9 

the  real  and  highest  welfare  of  each ;  lastly,  it 
includes  the  person  himself  who  feels  it,  and, 
loving  self  too  only  in  the  ideal,  differs  as  much 
as  possible  from  selfishness,  being  associated  with 
self-respect,  humiHty,  and  independence,  as  selfish- 
ness is  allied  with  self-contempt,  with  arrogance, 
and  with  vanity."  ^ 

Here,  then,  in  this  principle  of  reverence  for  the 
person  as  a  person,  we  have  both  a  fundamental 
moral  principle,  and  one  belonging  to  the  very 
essence  of  Christianity.  We  have,  thus,  we  may 
be  sure,  one  of  the  inescapable  laws  of  life  —  the 
supreme  condition,  indeed,  of  fine  personal  rela- 
tions; and  that  means  the  supreme  condition  of 
character,  of  influence,  and  of  happiness.  To  fail 
here  we  may  not  forget  is  to  fail  at  the  center  of 
life,  to  sap  our  best  endeavors,  to  cut  ourselves  off 
as  individuals,  as  a  nation,  as  a  civilization,  from 
the  highest  achievement.  For  the  supreme  test  of 
individual,  or  nation,  or  civilization  is  this  test  of 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  our  own  and 
others.  And  reverence  for  the  person  involves 
first,  genuine  self-respect;  second,  a  like  genuine 
respect  for  the  liberty  of  others;  and,  third,  respect 
for  the  inner  worth  and  personality  of  others. 

1  Ecce  Homo,  p.  345. 


lO        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

III 

WHAT   THE   PRINCIPLE   DEMANDS 

No  more  serious  blow,  in  the  first  place,  can  be 
given  to  the  growth  of  child  or  man  or  race  than 
to  break  down  self-respect.  This  insures,  in  each 
case  alike,  lack  of  self-control,  without  which  no 
worthy  achievement  along  any  line  is  possible. 
Self-respect  is  neither  self-depreciation  nor  self- 
conceit.  In  humble  reverence  the  man  of  self- 
respect  sees  himself,  as  he  sees  every  other,  as  a 
member  of  the  divinely  ordained  organic  body  of 
society.  He  may  believe,  therefore,  that,  like 
every  other,  he  has  his  own  unique  indispensable 
place  and  function.  In  the  light  of  the  much  that 
he  must  receive  from  others,  and  in  the  light  of 
the  divine  ideal  for  himself,  he  cannot  be  self- 
conceited  ;  but,  in  faith  in  his  divine  and  unique 
calling,  he  cannot  be  self-depreciative.  The  man 
who  has  no  reverence  for  his  God-intended  destiny, 
as  indicated  in  his  peculiar  individuality,  —  who 
has  no  belief  that  he  is  called  thus  to  a  work 
singularly  his  own,  will  gird  himself  for  no  high 
task.  The  only  measure  of  other  men,  too,  that 
one  possesses,  is  himself.  One  can  interpret  the 
Golden  Rule  itself,  and  the  measure  of  his  obliga- 


REVERENCE  FOR  PERSONALITY       II 

tion  to  others,  only  in  terms  of  his  own  claim  on 
life.  To  put  that  claim  low,  to  despise  one's  self,  to 
turn  one's  back  on  one's  divinely  given  task,  is  to 
end  with  a  like  contempt  of  others,  and  to  sur- 
render the  very  basis  of  character. 

Ultimately,  too,  a  man's  sole  gift  to  men  or  to 
God  is  himself.  If  he  does  not  value  himself,  but 
falls  into  mere  imitation  of  others,  he  has  no  con- 
tribution to  make.  In  Browning's  poem  of  The 
Boy  and  the  Angel,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
even  the  archangel  could  not  take  the  boy's  place. 
"I  miss,"  God  said,  ''I  miss  my  little  human 
praise."  The  greatest  discovery  of  hfe,  thus,  for 
man  or  for  race,  next  to  the  discovery  of  God  — 
and  the  two  discoveries  are  likely  to  be  coincident 
—  is  finding  one's  self,  what  Emerson  calls  ojie's 
"net  experience."  And  in  loyalty  to  this  true 
self  Hes  one's  chief  happiness,  too.  It  is  vain, 
therefore,  to  expect  either  character  or  influence 
or  happiness  in  either  a  man  or  a  race  without 
basic  self-respect.  And  no  man  can  keep  a  genuine 
self-respect,  it  must  be  added,  while  he  is  seeking 
to  degrade  others.  As  Booker  Washington  has  put 
it,  "We  are  fast  learning  in  every  part  of  America, 
that  one  man  cannot  hold  another  man  down  in  • 
the  ditch  without  remaining  in  the  ditch  with  him." 


12         THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Nor,  in  the  second  place,  is  it  possible  to  keep 
one's  own  character  without  fundamental  respect 
for  the  liberty  of  others.  We  can  never  escape  the 
truth  of  Fichte's  old  contention,  that  he  becomes 
a  slave  who  treats  another  as  a  slave.  Character 
deteriorates  inevitably  and  steadily  wherever  the 
attitude  of  simple  domination  —  the  spirit  of  the 
"boss"  —  comes  in.  There  is  nothing  in  the  uni- 
verse of  God  so  damning  as  this  bossing  spirit  of 
contempt.  We  are  but  feebly  alive  to  its  corrod- 
ing power  upon  the  boss  himself  —  whether  man 
or  race.  Arbitrary  power  is  perilous  to  the  char- 
acter of  him  who  exercises  it.  It  was  even  more 
imperative  for  the  moral  life  of  Georgia,  that  the 
chain  gang  be  abolished,  than  for  the  direct  victims 
of  the  system.  The  system  contradicted  the  spirit 
essential  to  any  even  decent  civilization. 

Equally  impossible  is  it,  to  be  truly  influential 
with  others,  to  make  a  good  or  useful  child  or  man 
or  people,  without  that  respect  for  their  liberty, 
that  means  the  calling  out  of  their  own  will  —  the 
explicit  eliciting  of  their  purpose.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  laying  character  upon  men  from  with- 
out. Like  rest,  it  cannot  be  pasted  upon  a  man ; 
it  must  be  an  active  achievement.  We  are  following 
an  utterly  abandoned  psychology  and  pedagogy,  if 


REVERENCE  FOR  PERSONALITY       1 3 

we  dream  of  so  lifting,  even  into  serviceableness, 
any  child  or  man  or  people.  You  cannot  have  intel- 
ligent help  without  developing  intelligence,  and  you 
cannot  have  trustworthy  help  without  developing 
trustworthiness ;  and  that  means  eliciting  the  will. 

And,  once  more,  there  is  thrust  on  every  thought- 
ful student  of  civilization,  and  of  the  evolution  of 
refining  personal  relations,  the  conviction  that  the 
very  flower  of  character  is  to  be  found  in  a  delicate 
recognition  of  the  inestimable  value  and  sacredness  of 
the  individual  person.  Wherever  that  respect  for 
the  person  is  replaced  in  any  degree  by  the  willing- 
ness to  use  the  person  as  a  thing,  as  means  only, 
as  a  mere  convenience,  and  not  as  an  end  in  itself ; 
wherever  the  spirit  of  contempt  is  allowed  to  come 
in,  —  there,  character  deteriorates ;  there,  all  true 
influence  over  others  is  surrendered ;  there,  all  the 
happiness  of  really  fine  personal  relations  has 
vanished.  The  cynic  can  be  neither  a  good  man, 
nor  a  good  leader,  nor  a  happy  human  being. 

Let  us,  then,  make  it  forever  clear  to  ourselves 
that,  whether  we  are  thinking  of  our  own  growth, 
or  of  any  possible  help  of  others,  we  cannot  evade 
or  escape  the  reach  of  this  principle  of  reverence 
for  the  person,  any  more  than  we  may  escape  the 
omnipresence  of  God.     We  may  not  heedlessly  set 


14        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

aside  the  supreme  moral  counsel  of  the  race,  and 
not  suffer  the  consequences.  We  cannot  repudiate 
the  reverent  spirit  and  method  of  Jesus  for  the 
contempt  of  the  Pharisees,  and  remain  truly  Chris- 
tian. Many  admit  unhesitatingly  the  full  authority 
of  the  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person  in 
individual  relations,  but  deny  its  applicability  in 
the  relations  of  nations.  But  it  is  not  to  be 
forgotten,  that  no  small  part  of  the  recent  moral 
progress  of  the  race  is  due  precisely  to  the  discern- 
ment that  moral  obligations  of  the  same  kind 
as  hold  for  individuals,  hold  for  associated  groups 
of  individuals,  for  business  houses,  for  corporations, 
for  classes,  for  municipal  governments,  for  states, 
and  for  nations.  The  very  meaning  is  taken  out  of 
the  social  consciousness  of  our  time  if  this  is  denied. 
It  is  such  considerations  as  these,  therefore,  that 
lead  one  to  say  that,  whether  as  individuals,  or 
as  a  nation,  or  as  partakers  in  a  world  civilization, 
no  problem  confronts  us  so  serious  as  just  this, 
of  our  inner  spirit  of  reverence  for  personahty.  Its 
varied  applications  and  demands  will  become  in- 
creasingly clear,  as  we  turn  to  a  more  detailed 
study  of  the  new  external  conditions  and  the  new 
inner  world  of  our  time,  and  of  the  historical  trend 
of  the  centuries  of  Western  civilization. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of 
Present  External  Conditions  I:  The  New- 
External  Conditions  and  their  Individual 
Challenge 

Intelligent  prevision  of  the  future  world  civi- 
lization can  only  be  based  upon  the  discernment 
of  present  needs  and  trends,  and  of  the  larger  trend 
of  the  centuries.  From  these  we  must  infer  the 
probable  lines  of  future  development.  The  con- 
sideration of  present  needs  and  trends  would  call  for 
facing,  particularly,  the  demands  of  the  new  ex- 
ternal world,  and  of  the  new  inner  world  of  thought; 
and  both  require  a  review  of  certain  somewhat 
familiar  facts.  The  immense  range  and  multi- 
plicity of  interests  of  the  present  day  particularly 
demand  such  a  thoughtful  survey  of  the  whole,  if 
the  inquiry  is  not  to  end  in  confusion,  and  in  either 
vague  enthusiasm  or  vague  depression.  Never  be- 
fore has  it  been  so  necessary  to  make  one's  survey 
of  human  conditions  complete.  We  are  to  at- 
tempt, therefore,  to  study  the  problem  of  human 
development  in  its  entirety,  —  as  a  world  problem. 

IS 


1 6        THE   MOR.'\L   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 


THE   MAIN   MOVEMENTS   OF   THE   TIME 

When  one  turns,  in  the  first  place,  to  a  study 
of  the  changed  external  conditions  of  our  present 
civilization,  certain  facts  stand  out  unavoidably: 
the  progressive  conquest  over  the  forces  of  nature ; 
the  resulting  stupendous  economic  development; 
the  world-wide  economic  solidarity ;  the  consequent 
enormous  increase  of  wealth ;  the  extension  of  the 
policy  of  the  national  conservation  and  develop- 
ment of  natural  resources;  the  inevitable  growth 
of  great  cities ;  the  far  finer  division  of  labor ;  the 
indefinitely  closer  connections  of  men,  the  world 
over,  through  improved  methods  of  transportation, 
commerce,  communication,  and  the  press;  the 
resulting  increasing  association  of  the  races;  the 
rapidly  extending  apphcation  of  scientific  dis- 
coveries for  the  betterment  of  human  Hfe;  the 
adoption  of  universal  education  by  all  the  more 
enlightened  nations,  and  such  adoption  increasingly 
recognized  as  the  necessary  ideal  in  all  nations; 
the  movement  for  the  advancement  of  women; 
the  great  foreign  missionary  movement  of  the  last 
century;  and  swift  and  revolutionary  changes 
among  many  nations. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  1 7 

Kidd  hardly  overstates  the  significance  of  these 
changes,  though  his  statement  is  not  confined  to 
the  external  conditions,  when  he  says :  "In  inven- 
tions, in  commerce,  in  the  arts  of  civiHzed  life,  in 
most  of  the  theoretical  and  applied  sciences,  and 
in  nearly  every  department  of  investigation  and 
research,  the  progress  of  Western  knowledge  and 
equipment  during  the  period  in  question  has  been 
striking  beyond  comparison.  In  many  directions 
it  has  been  so  great  that  it  undoubtedly  exceeds  in 
this  brief  period  the  sum  of  all  the  previous  ad- 
vances made  by  the  race.  A  significant  feature, 
too,  is  that  the  process  of  change  and  progress 
has  continued  and  still  continues  to  grow  in  inten- 
sity. The  results  obtained,  for  instance,  during 
the  nineteenth  century,  altogether  exceed  in  range 
and  magnitude  those  achieved  during  the 
eighteenth.  The  results  of  the  second  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  similarly  surpass  in  importance 
those  of  the  first  half.  And  yet  never  before  has 
the  expectancy  with  which  the  world  waits  on  the 
future  been  so  intense  as  in  the  time  at  which  we 
have  arrived.  There  is  scarcely  an  important  de- 
partment of  practical  or  of  speculative  knowledge 
which  is  not  pregnant  with  possibilities  greater 
than  any  that  have  already  been  achieved.     Such 


1 8        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

is  the  nature  of  existing  Western  conditions,  that 
there  is  scarcely  any  appliance  of  civilization,  how- 
ever well  established ;  scarcely  any  invention, 
however  all-embracing  its  hold  on  the  world, 
which  the  well-informed  mind  is  not  prepared  to 
see  entirely  superseded  within  a  comparatively 
brief  period  in  the  future." 

Now  it  is  impossible  to  face  such  an  array  of 
facts  as  these,  and  not  see  that  their  demand 
upon  the  moral  and  religious  forces  must  be  vast 
and  far  reaching, 

I.  And,  first,  at  the  basis  of  all  these  changes 
there  plainly  lies  the  progressive  conquest  over  the 
forces  of  nature.  This  conquest  over  the  forces  of 
nature,  obviously,  has  taken  place  only  through 
the  progress  and  inventive  application  of  natural 
science.  Man  is  the  "tool-using  animal."  The 
first  club  of  primitive  man,  as  Drummond  suggests, 
was  the  father  of  all  succeeding  clubs  of  whatever 
kind,  and  the  promise  of  continued  conquest. 
Just  because  man  is  the  tool-using  animal,  the 
progress  of  natural  science  gives  him  absolutely 
limitless  scope.  Through  natural  science  the  laws 
governing  the  use  of  nature's  forces  have  been 
discovered,  and  the  involved  conditions  made 
known;    and   by   fulfillment   of   these   conditions 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  1 9 

man  has  gained  control  of  these  unmeasured 
forces,  and  has  thus  been  able  to  harness  them  to 
his  own  ends.  This  has  given  the  modern  man  an 
unexampled  sense  of  power.  There  is  no  feeling 
that  he  is  limited  to  the  power  of  his  own  muscle, 
or  even  to  that  of  the  simpler  machines.  He  feels 
that  he  can  draw  on  nature's  exhaustless  energies. 
It  is  difficult  to  measure  the  interval  that  thus 
separates  him  from  primitive  man,  or  from  the 
present-day  savage.  Here  belong  all  the  illustra- 
tions of  man's  victory  over  land  and  water  and 
air.  Immense  sources  of  power,  kept  hidden  from 
previous  generations,  have  been  opened  to  the 
present  age. 

Now,  this  situation  inevitably  provokes  the 
question :  Is  this  generation  prepared  for  the  wise 
use  of  such  enormous  power  ?  Have  the  secrets  of 
power  been  kept  for  us  as  their  worthy  recipients, 
or  is  their  revelation  premature?  For  the  possi- 
bility of  such  limitless  power  clearly  demands,  on 
man's  part,  preeminent  self-control. 

2.  From  this  progressive  conquest  over  the 
forces  of  nature,  in  the  second  place,  the  stupendous 
economic  development  of  the  present  day,  most 
intense  of  all  in  the  United  States,  has  plainly 
resulted.     It  has  been  made  possible  only  by  the 


20        THE    MOR.\L   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

extending  use  of  nature's  forces  through  ma- 
chinery and  through  the  multitudinous  apphcations 
of  steam  and  electricity,  and  the  consequent  pos- 
sibility of  an  unprecedented  development  of  natural 
resources  everywhere. 

The  question  is,  thus,  again  forced  upon  us : 
Are  we  to  be  adequate  to  so  stupendous  a  trust  ? 
Are  our  educational  and  religious  forces  fitting  the 
coming  generation  for  their  inevitable  economic 
inheritance  ? 

3.  The  present  enormous  economic  development 
naturally  tends  also  toward  a  world-wide  economic 
solidarity.  It  is  already  practically  true  that  the 
economic  isolation  of  any  people  is  no  longer 
possible.  In  Bryce's  words,  "it  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  for  economic  purposes  all  man- 
kind is  fast  becoming  one  people,  in  which  the 
hitherto  backward  nations  are  taking  a  place 
analogous  to  that  which  the  unskilled  workers 
have  held  in  each  one  of  the  civilized  nations. 
Such  an  event  opens  a  new  stage  in  world  history, 
a  stage  whose  significance  has,  perhaps,  been  as 
yet  scarcely  realized  either  by  the  thinker  or  the 
man  of  action."  ^  Every  commercial  enterprise, 
at  all  capable  of  such  extension,  tends  to-day  to 
^  Quoted  by  Cairnes,  Christianity  in  the  Modern  World,  p.  252. 


OF    PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  21 

become  world-wide.  The  way  in  which  coal  oil 
and  corrugated  iron  are  spreading  over  the  world 
is  an  illustration  of  a  universal  tendency.  Every- 
where the  commercially  more  developed  or  enter- 
prising nations  are  pressing  in  on  the  less  developed 
peoples,  and  searching  out  opportunities  for  busi- 
ness or  industrial  extension. 

It  is  evident  that  in  such  a  situation  there  is 
great  danger  of  a  purely  selfish  exploitation  that 
may  both  work  great  injustice  to  the  more  back- 
ward peoples  and  react  disastrously  on  -the  higher 
life  of  the  exploiting  nations.  This  condition, 
therefore,  once  again,  plainly  asks  from  the  more 
advanced  nations  for  a  self-control  that  can  be 
made  possible  only  by  the  dominion  of  the  highest 
ideals,  and  by  interest  in  the  world-wide  enter- 
prises of  the  moral  and  religious  advancement  of 
the  race.  And  it  asks  from  the  more  developed 
nations,  not  less,  for  steady  practice  of  the  Golden 
Rule,  and  of  the  principle  of  reverence  for  per- 
sonality, in  relation  to  the  backward  peoples.  At 
the  same  time,  these  towering  commercial  am- 
bitions call  for  clear  discernment  of  the  fact  that, 
even  should  this  commercial  exploitation  become 
complete  and  absolute,  if  it  were  counted  the 
whole  of  life,   Hfe  would  be  empty  of  meaning. 


22         THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

This  final  insufficiency,  of  the  commercial  enter- 
prise, however  great,  to  satisfy  man's  thirst  for 
life,  is  only  hidden  from  man,  for  the  time  being, 
by  the  engrossing  energy  demanded  by  the  im- 
mense sweep  of  the  economic  undertakings  of  the 
present  day. 

4.  Out  of  all  these  movements,  now,  has  come 
that  enormous  increase  of  wealth  that  so  charac- 
terizes our  generation.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
the  wealth  of  the  world  has  increased  as  much  in 
the  last  one  hundred  years  as  in  all  the  preceding 
centuries.  Ninety-three  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of 
the  United  States  "has  been  created  and  accumu- 
lated since  1850";  and  the  daily  increase  in  the 
nation's  wealth  during  the  first  four  years  of  the 
twentieth  century  was  twice  that  during  the  last 
decade  of  the  nineteenth.^ 

The  questions  raised,  too,  by  the  stupendous 
private  fortunes  and  aggregations  of  fortunes  of 
these  later  days,  with  their  attendant  power,  are 
serious  enough.  A  comment,  like  that  of  Kidd, 
is  almost  forced  from  the  thoughtful  observer: 
"The  inherent  and  elemental  barbarism  of  condi- 
tions —  even  when  due  allowance  is  made  for 
services  rendered  to  society,  in  the  first  stages  in 
1  See  Josiah  Strong,  The  Ckalletige  of  the  City,  p.  12. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  23 

the  organization  of  industry  —  under  which  a 
private  citizen  is  able  to  accumulate  out  of  what 
must  ultimately  be  the  'enforced  disadvantage'  of 
the  community,  a  fortune  tending  to  equal  in 
capital  amount  the  annual  revenue  of  the  United 
States  or  Great  Britain,  begins  to  deeply  impress 
the  general  imagination."  ^  This  enormous  and 
marvelously  rapid  increase  of  wealth  has  inevitably 
affected,  for  all,  the  standards  of  comfort  and 
luxury,  and  brought  a  new,  and  either  intoxicating 
or  depressing  sense,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  the 
tremendous  power  of  money  for  good  and  for  evil. 
Upon  no  generation,  since  the  world  began,  has 
there  ever  come  such  a  flood  of  material  posses- 
sions. Can  we  stand  this  material  pressure,  and 
wisely  direct  these  material  forces  ?  Is  this  genera- 
tion equal  to  the  moral  demand  involved  ?  Are 
education  and  religion  steadily  disciphning  men 
for  tasks  so  tremendous,  and  against  temptations 
so  insidious?  For  the  possession  of  such  stagger- 
ing resources  of  wealth  and  of  power  over  nature, 
plainly  requires,  once  more,  and  in  superlative 
degree,  self-control,  severely  disciplined  powers. 
For  how  can  we  master  such  staggering  resources 
without  preeminent  self-mastery  ?  How  can  we 
1  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  p.  434. 


24        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

make  certain  that  we  shall  own  our  possessions, 
and  not  simply  be  owned  by  them  ? 

Because  this  self-mastery  cannot  be  merely 
negative,  the  possession  of  these  astounding 
resources  means,  at  this  point  also,  intelHgent 
insight,  and  the  necessity  of  ideals  and  enterprises 
high  enough  and  great  enough  to  dominate  the 
lower  and  selfish  interests.  This  is,  at  once,  an 
appeal  for  strenuous  moral  and  rehgious  training, 
for  the  highest  religious  ideals,  and  for  the  sur- 
passing enterprises  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  We 
need,  thus,  clearly  to  see  that  the  economic  achieve- 
ments of  our  time  make  rehgion  not  less,  but  far 
more,  necessary  to  the  life  of  man. 

5.  The  steady  extension  of  the  policy  of  national 
conservation  of  natural  resources,  characteristic  of 
our  time,  is  both  an  illustration  of  economic  de- 
velopment and  an  attempt  to  insure  permanent 
national  and  not  merely  individual  wealth.  The 
policy,  indeed,  has  been  thrust  upon  the  nations  in 
no  small  degree,  by  the  perception  of  the  way  in 
which  immense  private  fortunes  have  been  built 
up  by  a  selfish  exploitation  of  natural  resources, 
with  sHght  regard  to  the  needs  of  future  genera- 
tions, or  to  the  interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 
It  has  become  unmistakably  plain,  that  a  mere 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  25 

let-alone  policy  here  results  in  enormous  wastes. 
Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Japan  have  been  notably 
successful  in  conservation  work ;  and  they  are  by 
no  means  alone  in  such  endeavor.  The  necessity 
of  conservation,  indeed,  is  becoming  recognized  all 
over  the  world.  The  national  conservation  of 
natural  resources  means,  then,  as  has  been  well 
said,  three  things:  the  prevention  of  waste,  the 
assertion  of  national  control,  and  the  attempt  to 
insure  that  all  the  people  shall  share  in  such  national 
resources. 

This  movement,  that  is,  demands  that  we 
should  see  the  problem  of  the  use  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
all  its  citizens;  that  we  should  be  wilHng,  there- 
fore, to  subordinate  selfish  and  class  interests  to 
the  interests  of  all,  and  to  act  also  in  clear  view  of 
future  generations ;  and  yet  that,  at  the  same 
time,  we  should  keep  the  full  value  of  individual 
initiative  and  individual  enterprise.  For,  in  the 
pursuit  of  national  conservation,  the  nation  must 
make  certain  that  it  does  not  go  back  to  a  merely 
communal  point  of  view;  and  it  must,  therefore, 
be  willing  to  pay  the  necessary  price  for  con- 
stantly securing  individual  initiative  and  enter- 
prise.    The  highest  good  of  all  requires  that  a 


26        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

nation  should  not  lose  the  ingenious  initiative  or 
the  ablest  service  of  any  one  of  its  members. 
This  implies  that  the  general  good  is  best  insured 
by  the  frank  bestowal  of  special  rewards  for  special 
services.  The  point  to  be  scrupulously  safe- 
guarded is,  that  there  are  to  be  no  unearned  special 
privileges,  and  that  the  sole  justification  of  extraor- 
dinary rewards  is  an  equally  extraordinary  service 
to  the  nation,  and  that,  when  the  service  ceases, 
the  reward  also  ceases. 

6.  The  inevitable  growth  of  the  cities,  too,  brings 
to  the  moral  and  religious  forces  what  Dr.  Josiah 
Strong  has  justly  called  "the  challenge  of  the 
city."  And  he  makes  it  perfectly  clear  that  there 
is  no  way  by  which  our  civilization  may  evade 
this  challenge.  The  causes  of  the  movement 
toward  the  city,  as  he  says,  "are  permanent,  and 
indicate  that  this  movement  will  be  permanent." 
The  great  bulk  of  the  people  cannot  live  by  agricul- 
ture. "Simply  bearing  in  mind  that  the  world's 
capacity  to  consume  food  is  limited  will  throw 
not  a  Httle  light  on  economic  conditions,  both 
present  and  future.  It  means  that  only  a  limited 
number  of  persons  can  get  a  living  by  agriculture, 
and  that  when  the  supply  of  food  has  reached 
the  limit  of  demand,  agriculture  can  increase  only 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  27 

as  population  increases."  Moreover,  improved 
methods  in  agriculture  tend  to  "limit  it  to  an  ever- 
decreasing  proportion  of  the  population,  which,  of 
course,  means  that  an  ever-increasing  proportion 
will  live  in  cities."  It  is  also  to  be  noted,  that, 
while  there  is  a  natural  limit  to  the  world's  capacity 
to  consume  food,  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  "no 
such  limit  to  its  capacity  to  use  the  products  of 
the  mechanical  arts,"  and  this  steadily  tends  to 
shift  the  population  "from  agriculture  to  manu- 
factures and  mechanical  pursuits,  or,  in  other 
words,  from  country  to  city."  ^  The  inevitable 
trend  of  population,  therefore,  is  toward  the  city, 
and  none  of  the  various  devices  for  scattering 
people  to  the  country  can  prevent  the  continued 
growth  of  great  cities ;  though  there  are  undoubted 
elements  of  value  in  these  movements.  With  the 
distribution,  too,  of  electrical  power,  and  with  in- 
creasing ease  of  transportation  and  communication, 
decided  gain  can  be  made  for  country  populations ; 
but  no  one  nor  all  of  these  things  can  largely 
check  the  movement  toward  the  city.  The  figures 
of  the  last  census  show  how  rapidly  this  movement 
has  been  going  on  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
same  tendency  is  to  be  seen,  practically,  all  over 

^  Strong,  The  Challenge  of  the  City,  pp.  22,  24,  26. 


28        THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  world.  As  Dr.  Strong  says,  ''the  sudden  ex- 
pansion of  the  city  marks  a  profound  change  in 
civilization,  the  results  of  which  will  grow  more 
and  more  obvious."  ^ 

This  inevitable  growth  of  the  cities  means  great 
congestion  of  population,  with  its  accompanying 
dangers  ;  enormous  enhancing  of  land  values  ;  the 
putting  of  tremendous  resources  to  be  expended 
in  the  hands  of  city  authorities,  involving  the  no 
less  tremendous  problems  and  possibilities  of  cor- 
ruption on  the  one  hand,  or  of  high  service  to  all 
on  the  other.  These  phenomena  are  illustrated 
in  almost  any  one  of  our  great  cities.  It  is  un- 
speakably depressing  to  see  the  sheep-like  way  in 
which  some  of  these  cities  have  allowed  the  forces 
of  corruption  to  rule.  It  is  highly  inspiring,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  see  some  of  the  victories  that 
have  been  won  for  health,  for  decency,  for  rational 
enjoyment,  and  for  righteousness.  A  recent  illus- 
tration is  found  in  the  splendid  fight  of  Chicago's 
health  officer  for  pure  air. 

The  moral  and  religious  challenge  of  the  city  is 
seen  most  clearly  in  the  fact  that  the  city,  just 
because  of  its  enormous  possibilities  for  good  and 
evil,  is,  probably,  the  severest  test  of  democratic 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  21. 


OF    PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  29 

institutions,  —  the  point  at  which  hitherto  they 
seem  to  have  been  least  successful,  but  where, 
nevertheless,  some  gratifying  progress  has  been 
recently  made.  The  city  brings  the  challenge  of 
the  necessity,  on  the  one  hand,  of  defeating  un- 
scrupulous wealth  and  of  securing  better  distribu- 
tion of  wealth ;  and  the  equal  necessity,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  defeating  a  materialistic,  unscrupu- 
lous democracy  that  would  empty  life  of  all  its 
higher  meaning.  The  city  has  the  possibility  and, 
therefore,  the  persistent  problem  of  bringing  the 
genuinely  best  within  easy  reach  of  all.  But  it 
demands,  in  peculiar  degree,  unselfish,  patient, 
intelligent,  far-sighted  leadership,  and  loyal  re- 
sponse to  that  leadership  on  the  part  of  an  honest, 
self-respecting  people  that  have  ideals  and  are 
willing  to  sacrifice  something  for  them.  It  re- 
quires, especially,  business  men  that  can  see 
beyond  the  immediate  contents  of  their  pocket- 
books,  and  have  brains  to  understand  that  rotten 
moral  conditions  and  persistent  failure  of  justice 
cannot  constitute  good  foundations  for  a  city's 
fame,  or  for  its  permanent  prosperity. 

7.  The  extent  to  which  the  division  of  labor, 
also,  has  been  carried  in  the  last  fifty  years  is,  as 
it  has  been  often  noted,  one  of  the  most  marked 


30        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

of  the  economic  features  of  our  time.  Such  in- 
creasing division  of  labor  is  clearly  involved  in  the 
incoming  of  machinery,  and  it  makes  necessary  an 
interdependence  of  individuals  and  of  communi- 
ties, of  which  the  older  world  could  not  dream. 
It  involves,  also,  the  tendency  toward  a  certain 
seemingly  inevitable  separation  of  work  and  happi- 
ness, and  of  work  and  growth ;  though  there  has 
been  some  gain  at  this  point  in  our  best  factories, 
through  cultivating  the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  whole 
body  of  employees,  and  through  interesting  each 
in  the  success  of  the  whole.  Ultimately,  too,  the 
division  of  labor  should  mean  greater  leisure  on  the 
part  of  the  individual. 

Have  we,  now,  the  qualities  necessary  for  the 
close  cooperation,  here  required  both  by  the 
nature  of  the  conditions  directly  resulting,  and  for 
the  cure  of  the  involved  disadvantages  of  such  a 
division  of  labor?  And,  so  far  as  greater  leisure 
results  from  this  division  of  labor,  is  our  civiliza- 
tion developing  in  men  capacities  for  using  such 
leisure  wisely?  Here  lies  a  peculiarly  significant 
opportunity  for  education. 

8.  Still  more  notable  among  the  phenomena  of 
the  present  are  the  indefinitely  closer  connections 
of  men  the  world  over,  through  improved  methods  of 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  3 1 

transportation,  commerce,  communication,  and  the 
press.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  the 
world  of  even  fifty  years  ago  to  understand  the 
extent  to  which  the  improved  methods  of  trans- 
portation, commerce,  communication,  and  publica- 
tion have  made  complex  and  sensitively  one  the 
whole  life  of  the  world.  It  is  difficult  now  to 
realize  the  earlier  conditions,  —  to  think  what  is 
involved,  for  example,  in  the  fact  that  the  first 
railroad  in  the  United  States  was  completed  only 
eighty-one  years  ago,  and  that  it  took  weeks 
where  it  now  takes  hours,  for  tidings  of  a  presi- 
dential election  to  spread  over  the  country.  It 
required  a  journey  of  thirty  days  for  President 
Jackson  to  go  from  his  home  near  Nashville  to  the 
nation's  capital.  The  contrast  between  the  older 
world  and  the  new  may  be  illustrated,  also,  in  the 
fact  that  the  railroad  mileage  of  India  —  which 
one  is  inclined  to  think  of  as  quite  outside  the 
range  of  Western  civilization — now  exceeds  that  of 
either  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  or  Austria  Hun- 
gary or  France,  and  is  nearly  double  that  of 
AustraHa.  In  1908  India  had  30,578  miles  of 
railway,  and  its  railways  carried  in  that  single 
year  three  hundred  and  thirty  million  passengers  — 
an  increase  of  more  than  one  hundred  millions  in 


32        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

five  years.     How  obviously  there  is  reflected  here 
the  conditions  of  a  new  world! 

When  one  thinks,  too,  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  knowledge  of  any  great  event  or  calamity  now 
permeates  the  world's  life,  he  sees  that  this  unifica- 
tion of  the  world  means  that,  in  no  small  degree, 
men  are  thinking  and  acting  together,  as  never 
before,  in  the  Hght  of  the  same  facts  and  ideals. 
Superficially  this  has  immensely  multipHed  events, 
and  given  a  speed  to  life  that  affects  us  every- 
where. This,  itself,  brings  a  tendency  to  hurry 
and  shallowness  of  life,  and  so  becomes  a  fresh  call 
for  life's  deepening,  through  a  more  thoughtful 
moral  and  rehgious  training.  But,  even  more 
important  than  this,  these  changes  have  unified 
the  world,  as  has  just  been  pointed  out,  in  a  way 
which  it  is  impossible  for  education  longer  to 
ignore.  Education  has  the  consequent  task  to-day, 
as  never  before,  of  preparing  men  to  enter  intelh- 
gently  and  unselfishly  into  a  world  life,  and  not 
merely  into  the  life  of  community  or  state  or 
nation.  The  modern  educator,  that  is,  needs  to 
be  able  to  give  to  his  pupils  a  world  conscious- 
ness, and  capacity  for  sympathetically  sharing  in 
the  world's  fife.  And  this  requires  high  moral  and 
religious  qualities,  as  well  as  intellectual  insight. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  33 

9.  The  same  influences  have  actually  associated 
the  dif event  races  of  the  earth,  to  an  unparalleled 
extent,  and  will  continue  still  further  to  mingle 
these  races  in  the  years  just  ahead.  Are  we  ad- 
justing thought  and  conduct,  with  any  reasonable- 
adequacy,  to  this  inescapable  future?  When  one 
recalls,  for  example,  the  significance  of  the  problem 
of  immigration  in  the  United  States,^  in  Canada, 
in  Austraha,  in  South  Africa,  in  the  Tropics,  in  Man- 
churia and  Formosa ;  —  when  one  recalls  the  tre- 
mendous reach  of  the  negro  problem  alone  in  the 
United  States  and  in  South  Africa,  and  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  other  unavoidable  race  and  caste 
problems  involved  in  the  commercial,  diplomatic, 
police,  sanitary,  intellectual,  philanthropic,  and 
religious  relations  of  the  races ;  he  cannot  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  deep  seriousness  of  the  challenge, 
which  is  brought  to  the  civilization  of  the  present 
day,  by  this  enormously  increased  association  of' 

^  "  It  is  computed  that  over  eight  millions  in  all  entered  between 
1900  and  the  end  of  1909,  and  that  over  twenty-seven  millions 
have  entered  in  the  years  between  1840  and  1910,  twice  what  the 
total  white  population  in  the  United  States  was  in  the  former 
year."  "There  were  in  the  United  States  only  forty-eight 
millions  of  white  people,  when  the  ten  millions  from  Central  and 
Southern  Europe  who  have  arrived  since  18S5  began  to  enter,  an 
addition  to  the  nation  such  as  no  nation  ever  received  before." 
—  Bryce,  r/ze  American  Commonwealth,  new  edition,  pp.  470,  481. 


34        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  races.  Imperialistic  national  policies,  the 
ambition  for  a  world-wide  commerce,  and  success- 
ful colonization,  —  all  depend,  in  no  small  degree, 
upon  careful  study  of  racial  characteristics  and 
willingness  to  adjust  to  race  differences ;  and  they 
are  seriously  jeopardized  by  the  contemptuous 
attitude  toward  other  peoples.  All  this  is  cer- 
tain to  be  increasingly  true  in  the  immediate 
future.  But  the  present  imperialistic  policies  in- 
vite dangerous  race  conflicts  in  a  double  way. 
"On  the  one  hand,  the  white  man  has  begun  to 
refuse  to  allow  colored  men  of  any  description  to 
enter  his  countries  in  large  numbers ;  on  the  other 
hand,  he  continues  to  rule  as  conqueror  immense 
areas  of  the  world,  the  soil  of  which  nourishes 
autochthonous  populations  having  little  or  nothing 
in  common  with  him,  and  therefore  regarding  his 
dominion  with  a  natural  and  growing  aversion."^ 
It  may  help  the  white  races  to  some  diminution  of 
their  arrogance  and  to  some  greater  consideration 
for  other  races,  to  remember  that  the  world  is  not 
a  white  man's  world,  but  that  the  numbers  of  the 
colored  races  —  black,  brown,  and  yellow  —  are 
practically  double  those  of  the  white  races  of  the 
globe,  and  that  considerably  more  than  half  of  the 
1  Weale,  The  Conflict  of  Color,  p.  99. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  35 

colored  population  of  Asia  is  not  at  all  subject  to 
white  races.  The  Asiatic  races  are  increasingly 
and  justly  resenting  the  contemptuous  attitude  on 
the  part  of  many  of  the  white  race.  Mr.  Mel- 
ville E.  Stone,  of  the  Associated  Press,  is  certainly 
justified  in  the  dehberate  judgment  expressive  of 
his  own  observation  in  the  East :  "We  shall  never 
meet  the  problems  growing  out  of  our  relation  with 
the  Far  East  unless  we  absolutely  and  once  for  all 
put  away  race  prejudice.  I  believe  the  European 
snob  in  Asia  is  distinctly  the  enemy  of  the  civilized 
West." 

As  to  immigration,  a  selfish  national  pohcy  of 
exclusion  of  all  immigrants  of  certain  races  can 
hardly  justify  itself  permanently.  But  it  may 
have  a  relative  justification  for  the  time  being, 
where  the  civilization  excluded  is  of  a  markedly 
different  t>^e,  and  where,  in  consequence,  it  would 
be  practically  certain  to  depress  the  standard  of 
living  for  the  working  classes.  The  progress  of  the 
race  is  so  intimately  connected  with  a  rising 
standard  of  living,  that  a  nation  which  has  suc- 
ceeded in  appreciably  pushing  up  that  standard 
for  its  least  favored  classes  has  both  the  right  and 
the  duty  to  preserve  this  raised  standard,  not  only 
for  its  own  sake,  but  also  for  the  sake  of  the  world 


36        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

civilization.  Immigrants  from  a  markedly  dif- 
ferent racial  stock  or  type  of  civilization,  also,  are 
more  difficult  successfully  to  assimilate  into  the 
national  life.  Both  these  reasons  may  well  justify 
Western  nations  in  placing,  at  least,  a  temporary 
limitation,  for  example,  upon  oriental  immigration. 
And  such  a  limitation  need  imply  no  denial  of  the 
achievements  or  high  quality  of  the  oriental  racial 
stocks.  But  it  is  peculiarly  easy  to  be  selfishly 
short-sighted  at  this  point  and  to  magnify  the 
dangers  of  a  reasonably  restricted  immigration, 
and  so  to  withhold  opportunities  that  we  could 
well  give,  not  only  without  loss,  but  with  real  gain. 
America's  experience  with  immigration,  on  the 
whole,  does  not  justify  a  selfishly  exclusive  policy, 
where  genuine  assimilation  may  reasonably  be 
expected.  It  cannot  be  denied  that,  at  just  this 
point,  for  the  present  at  least,  oriental  immigration 
presents  peculiar  difficulties.  The  extent  and 
seriousness  of  America's  negro  problem,  too,  might 
well  excuse  it  from  undertaking  another  difficult 
race  problem  at  once.^ 

For  the  rest,  this  increasing  association  of  the 
races  will  call  for  such  reverence  for  personality 
as  will,  first  of  all,  help  the  immigrant  to  keep  the 

1  Cf.  Coolidge,  The  United  Stales  as  a  World  Power,  pp.  74  ff . 


or   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  37 

best  of  his  ancestral  inheritance  as  he  comes  into 
the  new  national  life ;  as  will,  second,  insure,  in 
other  race  contacts,  such  self-respect  and  respect 
for  others  as  will  refuse  mere  domination  over  an- 
other race,  even  where  easily  possible ;  and  as  will 
bring,  thus,  the  only  final  peace,  —  the  peace  of 
justice,  for  that  can  come  only  from  recognizing 
every  man  according  to  his  worth.  That  is,  at 
every  point  in  this  far  closer  association  of  the 
races,  there  is  demanded  the  conquest  of  race 
prejudice,  through  sympathetic  understanding  and 
reverent  insight.  That,  and  that  alone,  will  help 
us  to  see  great  underlying  likenesses,  where  now 
we  see  only  divisive  differences.  This  has  been 
the  underlying  aim  of  the  Universal  Races  Con- 
gress recently  held  in  London. 

10.  The  present  has  been  characterized,  also,  by 
the  rapidly  extending  application  of  scientific  dis- 
coveries for  the  betterment  of  human  life.  For  con- 
crete even  if  homely  illustration,  undertakings  like 
the  attempt  to  prevent  the  spread  of  contagious 
diseases  by  the  abolition  of  public  spitting,  of  mos- 
quitoes, of  flies,  and  of  rats,  are  as  certain  to  be 
increasingly  demanded  as  science  is  certain  to 
progress.  Whenever,  as  in  the  case  of  consump- 
tion, malaria,  yellow  fever,  bubonic  plague,  typhoid 


38        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

fever,  the  connection  between  the  disease  and  its 
cause  has  been  scientifically  made  out,  the  demand 
must  follow  for  a  combined  attempt  upon  the  part 
of  the  community  to  do  away  with  the  cause. 
This  demand  will  be  made,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  attempt  will  require  a  far  greater  degree 
of  cooperation,  on  the  part  of  the  members  of  the 
community,  than  has  ever  been  attempted  before. 
Few,  probably,  realize  the  immense  change  of 
sentiment  that  has  taken  place  at  this  point  within 
recent  years.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  a 
degree  of  individual  and  community  cooperation 
is  now  counted  reasonable,  and  voluntarily  taken 
on,  that  would  have  been  scouted  as  ridiculous, 
even  fifteen  years  ago.  Such  cooperation  for  the 
scientific  improvement  of  human  life  will  not  be 
confined  to  the  prevention  of  disease,  but  is  certain 
to  be  applied  increasingly  to  all  discoverable  cases 
of  social  maladjustment.  It  is  of  the  very  essence 
of  that  combination  of  the  scientific  and  of  the 
social  spirit,  which  is  the  finest  characteristic  of 
our  time,  not  fatalistically  to  permit  maladjust- 
ment as  a  part  of  the  nature  of  things,  but  to  insist 
in  all  these  cases  on  knowing  the  exact  facts,  and 
the  precise  conditions  for  their  cure,  and  then  to 
press  for  the  fulfillment  of  these  conditions  on  the 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  39 

part  of  the  entire  community.  Our  time  rationally 
believes  that  great  gains  are  possible  through  a 
scientifically  directed  cooperation,  in  dealing  with 
even  some  of  the  oldest  of  human  ills. 

The  moral  demand  here  is  plainly  for  the  quali- 
ties which  are  needed  for  such  voluntary  and  con- 
tinuously extended  cooperation.  This  calls  for 
steady  training  in  enlightened  pubhc  spirit,  through 
school  and  church,  through  the  press,  through  a 
wise  official  propaganda,  and  through  careful 
scientific  presentation  of  needs  and  remedies. 

II.  In  the  very  first  rank  of  the  external  phe- 
nomena of  our  time,  obviously,  must  be  placed  the 
rapid  extension  of  education,  though  it  plainly 
connects  itself  as  well  with  the  inner  world  of 
thought.  The  movement  may  be  accurately  stated, 
by  saying  that  education  is  rapidly  extending  to  all 
in  the  more  enlightened  nations,  and  that  such 
universal  education  is  increasingly  recognized  as 
the  necessary  ideal  in  all  nations.  In  all  demo- 
cratic forms  of  government  it  seems  inevitable  that 
universal  education  should  be  counted  practically 
essential  to  the  nation's  life.  America  is,  thus, 
abundantly  right  in  putting  the  aim  for  universal 
education  at  the  basis  of  its  entire  policy  in  the 
PhiUppines.     But  in  any  nation,  it  may  not  be 


40        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

forgotten,  widely  extended  education  must  mean 
that  there  cannot  be  finally  ignorant,  stoUd  con- 
tent on  the  part  of  the  masses  of  the  people  with 
unsatisfactory  conditions,  but  in  such  circum- 
stances unrest  will  necessarily  result.  Such  ex- 
tension of  education  will  mean,  also,  that  there 
will  be,  on  the  part  of  the  entire  population,  at 
least  some  insight  into  the  issues  involved  in 
governmental  action,  and,  therefore,  the  danger  of 
class  struggles  and  demagogical  agitation.  Even 
intentional  agitators,  it  should  be  noted,  may  be, 
at  least,  partly  justified,  because  the  appetite  for 
better  things  on  the  part  of  the  more  depressed 
has  always  in  some  measure  to  be  created.  But 
the  cure  for  unrest,  whether  stirred  by  agitation  or 
not,  provided  conditions  are  essentially  just,  is 
not  less  education,  but  more  and  better  education ; 
for,  "the  wounds  of  knowledge  can  be  healed  only 
by  knowledge."  All  self-control  and  self-govern- 
ment must  ultimately  root  in  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  life  and  in  obedience  to  them.  Ignorance 
can,  therefore,  be  no  safe  foundation  for  any 
nation. 

Our  entire  survey  of  the  external  conditions  of 
our  time  should  make  it  clear  as  sunhght,  that, 
if  this  mighty  movement  for  universal  education  is 


OF   PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  4 1 

to  insure  the  real  progress  of  civilization,  the  edu- 
cation cannot  be  one-sidedly  intellectual,  but  must 
be  all-round,  and  scientifically  adapted  to  develop 
a  self-controlled,  self-supporting,  self-governing, 
high-souled  people,  prepared  to  enter  intelligently 
and  unselfishly  into  the  world  fife.  Every  cir- 
cumstance of  our  day  is  reiterating  that  the 
supreme  interests  are  those  of  character ;  but  these 
interests  demand  not  only  the  righteous  intent, 
but  rational  discernment  of  the  laws  of  fife. 

12.  Among  these  external  phenomena  of  our 
time,  the  movement  for  the  advancement  of  women 
also  demands  recognition ;  though  it,  too,  has  plain 
connections  with  the  inner  world  of  thought. 
This  century  has  been  called,  not  unjustly,  the 
woman's  century.  To  this  last  century  the  higher 
education  of  women  belongs ;  and  the  later  years 
especially  have  been  marked  by  a  much  fairer 
recognition  of  the  equahty  of  women  before  the 
law.  Nearly  all  the  greater  countries,  for  example, 
now  recognize  the  equality  of  women  in  their 
marriage  laws.  There  is  also  a  plain  trend  toward 
the  recognition  of  women's  essential  equahty  with 
men  everywhere ;  though  there  is  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  what  that  essential  equality  should 
mean  in  particulars,  and  there  seems  to  be  some 


42        THE   MORAL  AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

danger  of  making  the  mistake  of  overlooking  the 
valuable  individuality  of  the  sexes. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  puzzHng  phenomena  of 
the  history  of  the  Christian  nations,  that  the  just 
human  rights  of  women  should  have  been  so  slowly 
recognized,  in  the  face  of  the  plain  implications  of 
the  essential  teachings  of  Christ.  And  no  thought- 
ful observer  of  the  Orient  can  fail  to  see  the  obvious 
great  need  of  uplifting  women  in  India, ^  in  China, 
and  even  in  Japan.  A  race  cannot  rise  a  half  at 
a  time ;  and  no  race  can  achieve  what  it  ought 
while  its  wives  and  mothers  are  in  any  degree 
degraded.  Whether  in  Occident  or  Orient,  what- 
ever is  required  to  enable  woman  to  come  to  her 
fullest  and  highest  development  must  be  un- 
hesitatingly granted,  not  only  for  her  sake,  but  for 
that  of  the  whole  race.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
movement  for  the  advancement  of  women  chal- 
lenges this  generation  to  make  sure  that  it  fall  no 
whit  short  of  the  full  implications  of  the  Christian 
spirit  in  its  treatment  of  women  at  any  point ; 
and,  for  that  very  reason,  that  it  do  not  forget  the 
individuality  of  the  sexes,  and  the  special  and  in- 
dispensable  contribution   which   each   sex   has   to 

1  In  igoi,  only  two  and  one  half  per  cent  of  the  female  popula- 
tion of  school-going  age  was  receiving  even  primary  education. 


OF  PRESENT  EXTERNAL  CONDITIONS     43 

make  to  the  higher  civilization  of  the  race.  A  true 
reverence  for  personality  will  guard  both  points. 

It  may  well  be  asked,  also,  whether  there  is  not 
a  grave  and  curiously  paradoxical  danger  in  much 
of  our  American  life,  and  at  various  stages  of 
financial  prosperity,  moreover,  of  making  many 
women  into  a  new,  idle,  selfish  aristocracy,  that 
does  not  fairly  share  in  the  cares  and  struggles  of 
the  men.  A  genuine,  rational,  and  ethical  democ- 
racy cannot  ultimately  justify  that  untoward 
result  of  American  chivalry.  There  are  few  uglier 
features  in  modern  American  life  than  some  of  the 
grosser  manifestations  of  the  new  feminine  aris- 
tocracy, —  the  daily  record  of  the  idle,  selfish, 
gambhng,  self-indulgent  woman.  Is  there  any 
rational,  ethical  defense  possible  for  the  modern 
bridge  craze  ?  How  long  is  it  since  it  has  become 
safe  and  wise  for  a  people  steadily  and  studiously 
to  cultivate  the  gambling  spirit  in  its  own  homes, 
and  through  the  medium  of  its  wives  and  mothers  ? 

13.  Side  by  side  with  the  movements  for  the 
rapid  extension  of  education,  and  for  the  advance- 
ment of  women,  should  be  placed  the  great  foreign 
missionary  movement  of  the  last  century. 

Its  ethical  significance  is  indicated  by  Wundt, 
our  most  distinguished  historian  of  morals.    After 


44        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

speaking  of  "humanity,"  in  its  highest  sense,  as 
having  been  "brought  into  the  world  by  Chris- 
tianity," he  mentions  as  its  first  manifestation, 
the  care  of  the  sick,  and  then  adds:  "The  second 
great  expression  of  Christian  humanity  is  the 
estabhshment  of  missions.  .  .  .  The  example  of 
unselfish  devotion  to  an  ideal  task  produces  the 
most  profound  effect."  The  foreign  missionary 
movement,  in  truth,  roots  in  the  simple  necessity, 
on  the  part  of  the  morally  awakened,  of  unselfishly 
and  reverently  sharing  their  best  with  other  peoples. 
The  reverent  attitude  toward  the  inner  life  of  other 
peoples,  doubtless,  has  not  sufiiciently  charac- 
terized the  missionary  movement ;  but,  as  far  as 
it  has  failed  here,  it  has  been  unfaithful  to  the 
highest  Christian  ideal.  The  present  extent  and 
recent  growth  of  the  movement  indicate  that  it 
appeals  to  thoughtful  men  as  never  before.  Here 
is  a  movement  that  involves  the  Roman  CathoHc, 
Greek,  and  Protestant  communions,  and  all  the 
leading  nations  of  Western  civilization ;  that  has 
expressed  itself  through  some  hundreds  of  definitely 
organized  agencies ;  and  whose  efforts  are  now  put 
forth  among  every  people  on  the  globe.  It  is  a 
movement  that  unselfishly  and  self-sacrificingly 
seeks  the  good  of  those  to  whom  it  goes,  and  it  is 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  45 

attempting  a  world  conquest.  The  World  Mis- 
sionary Conference  of  1910,  with  its  catholic 
representation,  its  searching  and  comprehensive 
survey  of  conditions,  and  its  far-reaching  plans, 
belongs  in  the  list  of  the  greatest  gatherings  of 
the  centuries,  and  had  untold  significance  for  the 
progress  of  the  race.  No  attempt  to  study  moral 
and  religious  development,  as  a  world-problem, 
could  fail  to  attach  to  the  foreign  missionary 
movement  epochal  importance.  Its  recent  growth 
is  illustrated  in  the  widespread  Laymen's  Move- 
ment, and  in  its  increasing  endorsement  by  the 
ablest  leaders.  "Man  grows  with  greatness  of  his 
purposes,"  and  no  greater  ideal  task  has  ever 
presented  itself  to  the  imagination  of  men  than  the 
present  foreign  missionary  movement  when  rightly 
conceived. 

And  the  challenge  of  the  foreign  missionary 
movement  is,  on  the  one  hand,  to  shake  off  preju- 
dice, —  to  have  eyes  to  see  the  greatness  of  this 
ideal  enterprise;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  keep 
scrupulously  the  most  delicate  spirit  of  reverence 
for  personality  in  dealing  with  the  inner  life  of 
other  peoples,  and  yet  to  throw  ourselves  whole- 
heartedly into  this  highest  undertaking  of  our 
time.     For  their  own  life  and  growth  in  ideals, 


46        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Western  nations  need  imperatively  just  such  an 
unselfish  girding  of  their  powers  as  foreign  missions 
require. 

II 

RESULTING   CHANGES   AMONG  THE   NATIONS 

Justice  cannot  be  done  to  the  consideration  of 
the  changed  external  conditions  of  our  time,  with- 
out taking  account  further  of  the  marvelously 
rapid  and  revolutionary  changes  that  have  taken 
place  in  many  of  the  nations.  Let  one  recall,  for 
example,  the  way  in  which  Japan  has  forged  to  a 
place  among  the  chief  nations  and  to  leadership 
among  oriental  peoples ;  the  marvelous  accom- 
plishment of  a  comparatively  peaceful  revolution 
in  Turkey,  accompanied  at  the  same  time  with  an 
almost  unmatched  self-restraint  on  the  part  of 
the  revolutionary  leaders ;  in  line  with  these  out- 
standing changes  in  the  Far  and  Near  East,  many 
similar  changes,  that  are  all  a  part  of  a  general 
national  movement  all  over  the  world;  the  "rise 
of  the  native"  in  many  dependencies ;  the  manifest 
democratic  trend  everywhere ;  the  widespread 
Socialistic  and  Nihilistic  movements ;  the  increas- 
ing commercial  pressure  on  political  and  diplo- 
matic action ;   the  growing  exercise  of  police  power 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  47 

and  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  stronger 
nations;  the  greater  influence  of  international 
criticism ;  the  progress  of  international  arbitration 
and  the  peace  movement,  in  spite  of  growing 
armaments ;  the  pressure  of  the  Far-Eastern 
Question ;  and  rapidly  rising  moral  standards  in 
business,  industrial,  and  political  Hfe  in  America ; 
—  let  one  recall,  I  say,  what  is  involved  in  such  a 
bare  catalogue  of  national  phenomena  as  these, 
and  it  is  hardly  possible  for  him  to  fail  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  moral  and  religious  education 
on  a  world-wide  scale  is  now  going  on,  and  that 
the  changes  already  made  demand  a  still  greater 
moral  and  religious  enlightenment,  and  a  still 
severer  moral  and  reHgious  discipline. 

These  national  phenomena,  thus  summarily  in- 
dicated, deserve  a  brief  review  that  we  may  see 
exactly  their  significance  in  our  modern  world-hfe. 

I.  After  all  allowance  for  exaggeration,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  rise  of  Japan  stands  almost 
alone  among  these  national  phenomena,  as  a  rela- 
tively swift  and  unique  change  in  civilization, 
though  forced  from  without  and  directly  depend- 
ing upon  the  leadership  of  the  educated  few  who 
had  been  in  touch  with  Western  teachers.  This 
rise  of  Japan,  as  seen  especially  in  her  triumph 


48        THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

over  Russia,  has  profoundly  affected  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  dark-skinned  races,  the  world  over, 
even,  it  is  said,  to  the  very  center  of  darkest  Africa. 
Japan,  also,  has  pointed  the  way  that  must  be 
followed  by  all  the  larger  oriental  nations,  and 
especially  by  China,  if  they  do  not  wish  simply  to 
be  absorbed  or  exploited,  or  both. 

Japan's  rapid  progress  rightly  demands  from 
other  nations  a  just  and  understanding  insight 
into  her  problems,  without  exaggerated  blame  or 
praise.  There  should  be  no  jealousy,  no  bitter- 
ness, no  cynical  attacks,  and,  certainly,  no  fan- 
ning of  the  war  spirit ;  for  of  Japan's  honest  desire 
for  peace  with  America  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
At  the  same  time  there  should  be  no  merely  self- 
ish commercialism  in  our  attitude,  and  no  intolerant 
exclusiveness.^     That    is,    not    only    for    Japan's 

*  Though,  as  has  been  already  implied,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that 
there  is  justification  for,  at  least,  a  temporary  somewhat  different 
treatment  of  oriental  immigrants,  in  view  of  marked  racial 
differences,  and  of  their  prevailingly  communal  type  of  civiliza- 
tion. In  Japan's  case,  account  has  to  be  taken  of  an  intensity  of 
patriotism  that  seems  to  make  it  well-nigh  impossible  for  the 
Japanese  truly  to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  people  to  whom  they 
come.  Moreover,  Japan  cannot  consistently  object  to  exclusion 
of  Japanese  laborers,  since  she  herself  exercises  a  corresponding 
right  as  expressed  in  an  Imperial  Ordinance  of  1899.  (See  Millard, 
America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Question,  pp.  53  ff.,  572-574.)     "  Pro- 


OF    PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  49 

sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  all,  there  should  be,  on 
the  part  of  other  nations,  a  fair,  just,  broad,  self- 
respecting  and  other-respecting,  friendly,  peace- 
making spirit;  but  there  should  not  fail  at  the 
same  time  a  steady  demand  for  like  justice  for 
Korea  and  China,  as  previously  for  Japan.  The 
Far-Eastern  situation  is  made  much  more  difficult 
by  Japan's  seeming  unwillingness  that  China 
should  have  the  chance  which  she  herself  has 
had. 

vided  that  in  the  case  of  laborers  they  cannot  reside  or  carry  on 
their  business  outside  the  former  Settlements  or  mixed  residential 
districts  unless  under  the  special  permission  of  the  administrative 
authorities."  And  "laborers"  are  defined,  as  "men  engaged  in 
labor  in  agricultural,  fishing,  mining,  civil  engineering  work, 
architectural,  manufacturing,  transporting,  carting,  stevedoring, 
and  other  miscellaneous  work."  The  broad  scope  of  this  is 
notable.  Under  this  ordinance  Japan  has  excluded  hundreds  of 
Chinese.  And  with  this  ordinance  should  be  connected  the 
careful  judgment  of  a  well-known  German,  long  resident  in  Japan, 
and  happily  married  to  a  Japanese  lady:  "Everything  seems  to 
point  to  the  fact  that  Japanese  policy  is  directed  toward  closing 
the  country  to  foreigners,  so  far  at  least  as  permanent  residence  is 
concerned,  by  creating  a  condition  which  will  make  it  unprofit- 
able for  foreigners  to  live  and  carry  on  business"  {op.  cit.,  p.  121). 
Now,  in  all  this,  I  believe  that  Japan  is  exercising  its  clear  right, 
and,  under  the  present  circumstances  of  its  national  life,  is  prob- 
ably fully  justified  in  such  action.  Japan  means  to  make  per- 
fectly certain  that  it  is  not  to  be  exploited  by  foreigners.  But 
this  being  its  own  position,  it  cannot  object  to  immigration  hmi- 
tations  by  other  nations. 


50        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

2.  Turkeys  marvelous  peaceful  revolution  stands 
out  in  the  nearer  East  much  as  Japan's  rise  stands 
out  in  the  farther  East ;  but  in  Turkey  the  revolu- 
tion came  from  within  and  was  not  merely  forced 
from  without;  though  here,  too,  it  plainly  goes 
back  to  leaders  educated  into  Western  ideals.  This 
revolution  in  Turkey  affects  the  greatest  plague  spot 
of  the  nearer  East.  It  naturally  incites  desire  for 
similar  revolution  in  other  absolute  autocracies,  and 
suggests  at  the  same  time  the  true  method  for  such 
revolution,  and  inspires  hope  of  success. 

So  far  as  other  nations  are  here  concerned, 
Turkey's  movement  calls  for  warm  sympathy  and 
long  patience,  and  yet  a  demand  for  justice  for  the 
different  peoples  involved  and  for  all  Turkish 
dependencies,  in  harmony  with  Turkey's  own  just 
aspirations  for  herself.  It  is  particularly  to  be 
hoped  that  the  European  powers  will  not  longer 
continue  to  checkmate  each  other  in  these  righteous 
demands,  through  the  desire  for  selfish  commercial 
advantage  in  Turkey  itself. 

3.  In  line  with  these  outstanding  changes  in 
Japan  and  Turkey,  there  have  occurred  many 
similar  national  changes,  which  all  form  part  of  a 
general  trend  toward  national  individualism  all 
over  the  world.     The  spirit  of  Western  civiliza- 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  5 1 

tion  seems  to  be  at  work  in  all  these  changes. 
These  national  movements  include  two  of  special 
importance:  the  granting  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment, however  imperfect,  in  Russia,  —  a  break 
in  the  one  great  Western  autocracy ;  and  the  rise 
of  China  in  the  Far  East.  In  the  line  of  Japan's 
change,  China  is  attempting  to  take  on  Western 
education,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  foreign  domina- 
tion and  exploitation ;  and  she  is  seeking  to  develop 
a  truer  and  more  unified  and  more  constitutional 
national  life  of  her  own.  Her  great  weakness,  of 
course,  is  lack  of  national  unity.  In  the  near  East, 
revolution  in  Persia  has  moved  in  the  line  of  Tur- 
key's change,  but  with  much  less  inner  preparedness. 
4.  Nor  can  there  be  left  out  of  account,  what 
Sir  Harry  Johnston  has  called  ^^the  rise  of  the 
native"  throughout  the  world,  seen  in  a  great 
variety  of  movements  in  numerous  dependencies 
of  all  degrees,  as,  for  example :  Ireland,  India,  the 
Phihppines,  Finland,  Crete,  Egypt,  Madagascar, 
various  other  parts  of  Africa,  Formosa,  and  Korea. 
The  conditions  in  these  dependencies  are  varied 
enough ;  but,  back  of  whatever  unrest  there  may 
be  —  hopeful  or  hopeless  —  lies  the  feeling  that 
the  people  of  a  dependency  cannot  be  contented 
not  to  have  a  certain  life  of  their  own,  some  true 


52        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

autonomy,  some  measure  of  genuinely  significant 
political  life.  They  cannot  be  contented  to  be  a 
simple  dependency  of  another  nation.  Mere  gains 
in  efiiciency  of  government  are  not  enough.  It  is 
plain  that  this  feeling  is  only  a  manifestation  of 
the  spirit  that  underlies  the  whole  of  Western 
civilization.  As  the  ideals  of  Western  civilization, 
therefore,  spread  over  the  world,  it  must  be  more 
and  more  demanded,  that  the  genuine  welfare  of 
the  people  of  a  dependency  should  itself  be  the 
absolutely  dominating  consideration  in  the  entire 
treatment  of  the  dependency. 

It  cannot  be  claimed  that  that  condition  now 
exists.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  evident  that  the 
present  imperialistic  tendencies  of  the  leading 
nations  constantly  tempt  to  wanton  disregard  of 
the  just  rights  of  dependencies  and  of  the  coun- 
tries in  which  commercial  advantage  is  sought. 
A  ruthless  policy  of  expansion  seems  to  be  the 
order  of  the  day.  In  CooUdge's  words,  "sud- 
denly, without  warning,  the  nations  entered  upon 
a  wild  scramble  for  land  wherever  it  was  not 
strongly  held  or  protected  by  competing  interests. 
The  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great  or  of  the 
caliphs  did  not  equal  in  territorial  magnitude  the 
changes  which  the  last  twenty  years  have  wit- 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  53 

nessed."  ^  Such  immense  changes  can  hardly 
have  taken  place  without  invasion  of  the  rights  of 
weaker  states,  and  of  aboriginal  peoples.  It  is 
quite  too  likely  to  be  true,  as  Reinsch  says,  that 
"the  men  who,  as  civilization  pushes  forward  its 
outposts,  come  in  contact  with  the  savages,  usually 
have  no  ability  or  desire  to  understand  them, 
cruel  methods  of  conquest  and  subjection  are 
pursued,  and  most  of  these  races  would  be  happier 
if  they  had  never  seen  their  civilizers."  ^  The 
present-day  position,  indeed,  as  Weale  says,  ''is 
entirely  illogical  from  the  point  of  view  of  Asiatics, 
as  well  as  all  other  enhghtened  colored  peoples; 
for  whilst  the  white  man  now  proclaims  the  reign 
of  justice  and  the  equality  of  men,  in  ahen  lands 
he  still  rigidly  adheres,  in  everything  that  con- 
cerns his  own  interests,  to  results  achieved  under 
very  different  laws.  And  it  is  important  to  note 
that  where  logic  ceases,  brute  force  and  passion 
are  apt  magically  to  appear.  Inevitably  must  it 
follow  that  the  world  of  non-whites  will  make  the 
position  of  the  white  races  beyond  their  own 
boundaries  more  and  more  precarious.' 


n  3 


»  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power,  p.  4. 

*  World  Politics,  p.  43. 

'  The  Conflict  of  Color,  p.  100. 


54        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

But,  nevertheless,  the  present  desire  of  ambi- 
tious nations  to  expand  their  territories,  and  the 
asserted  need  to  unify  national  life,  are  both  made 
to  justify  the  most  unwarranted  aggressions. 
France's  relentless  aggressions  upon  Madagascar 
illustrate  the  former  motive.  Germany's  treat- 
ment of  Prussian  Poland,  and  Russia's  deahng 
with  Finland  are  examples  of  the  kind  of  national 
conduct  that  is  excused  by  the  latter  motive. 
The  policy  of  Russia  in  Finland,  in  the  language 
of  another,  is  "one  of  those  inconceivable  follies 
which  makes  her  [Russia's]  best  friends  despair;" 
and  it  seems  almost  intended  to  fulfill  the  prophecy 
of  Monsieur  de  Witte  :  "Harsh,  drastic  expedients 
may  easily  loosen  the  threads  that  have  begun  to 
be  tied ;  foster  national  hate ;  nurse  mutual  dis- 
trust and  suspicion  and  lead  to  results  the  reverse 
of  those  aimed  at."  In  spite  of  the  obvious  neces- 
sity for  Japan  to  intervene  in  Korea,  and  in  spite 
of  all  the  enterprise  that  Japan  has  certainly  there 
shown,  and  the  services  she  has  rendered,  and 
with  the  most  cordial  desire  to  give  Japan  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt,  it  seems  hardly  possible  to 
question  that  the  interests  of  the  Koreans  have  by 
no  means  been,  to  the  degree  they  ought,  the 
prime     consideration    in    Japan's     treatment    of 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  55 

Korea.^  Even  so  admirable  a  colonizing  power  as 
Great  Britain,  with  her  splendid  record  of  achieve- 
ment in  colonization,  is  not  without  her  tempta- 
tions and  dangers  at  this  point,  as  the  English 
Review  of  Reviews  says:  "The  sin  which  doth  so 
easily  beset  John  Bull  in  his  administration  of 
subject  races  is  a  readiness  to  resort  to  force,  and 
in  his  impatience  of  irritating  and  disorderly  oppo- 
sition, to  trample  under  foot  all  the  safeguards 
which  love  for  liberty  and  justice  has  erected 
against  the  abuse  of  arbitrary  power."  It  is  diffi- 
cult for  outsiders  to  see,  too,  why  Great  Britain 
should  refuse  so  doggedly  to  grant  to  Ireland 
that  measure  of  self-government  which  has  un- 
hesitatingly been  granted  to  Scotland  and  Wales 
—  not  to  mention  the  full  freedom  given  to  Canada 
and  Australia.  And  it  may  be  counted  inevitable 
that  poHtical  unrest  and  agitation  must  continue 
in  India,  in  spite  of  the  magnificent  services  that 
Great  Britain  has  there  rendered,  until  through 
gradual  training  and  extension  of  privilege,  the 
Indians,  themselves,  have  gained  at  least  some 
power   to   determine   the   policies   of   the   central 

1  Cf.  Millard,  America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Question,  pp.  1 28  ff. ; 
Weale,  The  Coming  Struggle  in  Eastern  Asia,  pp.  504  ff . ;  Harri- 
son, Peace  or  War,  East  of  Baikal,  pp.  367  ff. 


56        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CILA.LLENGE 

government.  King  George  may  reasonably  be 
expected  to  favor  such  a  policy.  Mr.  Stead  says 
of  him:  "He  has  been  much  impressed  by  the 
reconciliation  of  the  French  Canadians,  which  he 
rightly  declared  to  be  the  chief  glory  of  British 
policy  in  the  Dominion.  Everywhere  he  has  seen 
the  same  liberal  policy  of  self-government  and 
trust  in  the  people,  followed  by  the  same  fruits  of 
loyalty,  peace,  and  prosperity." 

It  is  quite  true  that  a  corrupt,  inefificient,  un- 
sanitary state,  incapable  of  self-government,  has 
no  right  to  continue  to  be  a  menace  and  obstacle 
to  progress  for  all  the  states  about  it.  But  neither 
is  such  a  condition  to  be  taken  as  warrant  for 
wanton  aggression.  The  principle  of  reverence 
for  the  person  must  rule  in  all  these  relations  to 
dependent  states.  Just  as  no  person  may  be 
used  as  mere  means  by  another,  but  must  be 
recognized  as  an  end  in  himself,  so,  too,  no  people 
may  ever  be  considered  as  mere  means  for  the 
benefit  of  another  people.  And  there  ought  to  be 
persistent  effort  to  help  the  dependent  peoples  to 
increasing  self-government.  In  Mr.  Blakeslee's 
words,  "the  Western  powers  have  been  school- 
teachers to  the  East  for  over  four  hundred  years, 
but  the  United  States  is  the  first  and  only  nation 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  57 

school-teacher  to  found  a  school  in  which  a  race- 
child  may  look  definitely  forward  to  graduation 
—  to  a  time  when  its  school  days  shall  be  over. 
This  policy  of  developing  the  Filipinos  by  granting 
them  a  continually  greater  share  in  their  own 
government,  has,  in  the  main,  been  honestly  and 
rapidly  carried  out.  The  United  States  to-day 
permits  the  Fihpinos  to  hold  —  and  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  to  hold  by  popular  election  — 
all  the  local  town  offices,  two-thirds  of  the  pro- 
vincial offices,  the  vast  majority  of  the  judicial, 
and  over  sixty  per  cent  of  the  civil  service  positions, 
and  now  that  a  national  assembly  has  been  organ- 
ized, it  gives  them  one-half  of  the  full  legislative 
power  in  the  islands."  ^  America's  policy  in  the 
treatment  of  the  Philippines  and  in  the  treatment 
of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  must  be  more  and  more 
recognized  as  the  true  poHcy  toward  all  dependent 
or  potentially  dependent  states ;  and  to  that  policy 
the  United  States  must  be  absolutely  loyal,  if  it  is 
to  face  the  enlightened  judgment  of  the  present 
era  of  the  world's  civilization. 

5.  And  it  is  impossible,  also,  to  fail  to  see  that, 
in  practically  all  states,  there  is  an  increasing 
democratic  trend.     This  is  to  be  discerned,  even  in 

1  China  and  the  Far  East,  p.  xviii. 


58        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

Germany,  the  most  autocratic,  next  to  Russia,  of 
European  powers.     To   this   class   of  phenomena 
belong,  also,  the  successful  attempt  to  reform  the 
House  of  Lords  in  England,  —  in  order  that  the 
nation  need  not  have  virtually  a  single  Chamber 
half  the  time ;   England's  very  free  policy  towards 
her  colonies;    and  the  marvelous  Union  of  South 
Africa,  most  remarkable  as  to  the  relations  between 
the   Britons   and   the    Boers,    but   with   its    own 
ominous  problem  of  relations  to  the  Blacks  and 
to  the  Indians.     Here  belongs,  also,  the  struggle 
for  more  truly  constitutional  government  every- 
where.    "Twenty-one  years  ago,  not  a  single  state 
in  Asia  had  any  form  of   constitution:    to-day, 
with    the    insignificant    exception    of    Siam    and 
Afghanistan,    every    country    on    the    continent 
either    has    a    constitution,    or    has    decreed    the 
establishment  of  one."  ^     In  the  United  States  the 
increasing    democratic    trend    has     been     shown 
most  wholesomely,  in  the  recent  rapidly  growing 
sense  of  the  responsibility  of  the  nation's  repre- 
sentatives to  the  whole  people,  and  not  merely  to 
local    constituencies    and    to    corporate    interests. 
One  particularly  significant  aspect  of  this  demo- 
cratic   trend   is    the   increasing   sense   of    respon- 
1  Blakeslee,  China  and  the  Far  East,  p.  xv. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  59 

sibility,  on  the  part  of  national  governments,  for 
the  economic  and  social  welfare  of  the  least  favored 
classes  of  the  nation.  All  these  democratic  move- 
ments look  to  closer  relations  of  the  government 
with  the  entire  people,  and  to  fuller  consideration 
for  the  interests  of  all. 

6.  Even  the  widespread  Socialistic  and  Nihilis- 
tic movements  probably  deserve  to  be  named  side 
by  side  with  these  democratic  tendencies,  because 
Socialism  and  NihiHsm  have  risen  out  of  the  belief 
that,  in  the  conditions  protested  against,  anything 
like  a  true  democracy  has  not  been  attained. 
The  thoughtful  observer  cannot  fail  to  be  im- 
pressed by  the  world  ideals  of  whole  armies  of 
Socialistic  laborers.  These  armies  are  profoundly 
convinced,  that  labor  has  not  had  its  fair  share  in 
the  distribution  of  the  wealth  of  the  nations,  and 
have,  therefore,  in  the  interests  of  the  great  mass 
of  humanity,  risen  to  the  perception  of  ideals  that 
seek  a  world-wide  sway.  And  it  is  not  unnatural 
that,  under  still  harder  conditions,  there  should 
have  been  developed  in  Russia,  among  the  Nihilis- 
tic leaders,  a  persistent,  widespread  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  well-nigh  religious  in  its  intensity,  under 
which  delicate  women  have  unhesitatingly  risked 
everything  of  value  in  life  for  the  furtherance  of  a 


6o        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

cause  that  they  at  least  believed  was  the  cause  of 
justice  and  humanity. 

The  world  cannot  afford  to  ignore  the  con- 
ditions out  of  which  these  two  great  movements 
have  grown.  SociaUsm  and  Nihihsm  rightly  de- 
mand from  the  rest  of  us  at  least  a  like  world- 
wide vision,  and  a  like  spirit  of  devotion  and 
self-sacrifice.  They  call,  not  less,  for  some  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  the  ideals,  for  which 
these  movements  intend  to  stand,  and  so  for  some 
understanding  of  what,  in  the  last  analysis,  they 
really  mean.  It  is  vain  simply  to  decry  their 
ideals  and  methods.  It  is  our  business  rather  to 
show  how  better  to  meet  the  really  worthy  ends, 
—  so  far  as  there  are  such  —  that  these  move- 
ments seek,  and  at  the  same  time,  to  avoid  the 
danger  of  rejection,  by  unthinking,  materialistic 
masses  of  men,  of  the  inner  life  of  culture  and  of 
religion. 

7.  It  is  not  possible  to  doubt,  either,  that 
among  the  national  phenomena  of  the  time,  there 
must  be  recognized  the  fact  of  increasing  com- 
mercial pressure  on  political  and  diplomatic  action. 
This  is  the  natural  result  of  imperialistic  policies, 
and  of  the  intenser  economic  rivalry  that  has  set 
in,  with  the  world-wide  spread  of  commerce.     Its 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  6 1 

effects  are  clearly  to  be  seen  in  India,  China,  and 
Africa,  —  to  mention  only  the  most  important 
cases.  Investors  in  any  of  the  less  developed 
countries  are  more  and  more  inclined  to  appeal  to 
their  own  nation,  to  demand  conditions  that  will 
make  their  investments  secure  and  profitable; 
and  the  whole  consular  system  tends  to  become 
chiefly  a  minister  to  financial  interests.  Where 
other  interests  are  taken  on,  they  are  quite  too 
often  used  only  as  a  pretext  for  securing  territorial 
expansion,  or  some  commercial  advantage.  France 
has  repeatedly  thus  used  its  asserted  protectorate 
over  Roman  Catholic  missions.  Great  combina- 
tions of  capital,  too,  are  clearly  making  their 
influence  strongly  felt  not  only  in  national,  but  also 
in  international  affairs.^  The  inevitableness  of  the 
commercial  pressure  is  further  to  be  recognized  in 
the  weighty  fact,  that  ability  to  borrow  money  is 
now  the  final  factor  in  any  great  war. 

This  increasing  power  of  money  in  political  and 
diplomatic  action  is  both  a  help  and  a  danger.  It 
may,  obviously,  help  to  discourage  foolish  an- 
tagonisms that  would  be  commercially  unprofitable ; 
and  since  commerce  brings,  on  the  whole,  mutual 

^  Cf.  Kidd,  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  pp.  351  5.., 
433  ff- 


62         THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

good  to  the  peoples  concerned,  this  aspect  of  com- 
mercial pressure  is  in  general  likely  to  be  in  the 
interests  of  righteousness  and  of  the  welfare  of  all. 
On  the  other  hand,  great  financial  interests  are 
practically  certain  to  be  class  interests ;  and, 
where  they  attempt  to  affect  political  and  legisla- 
tive action,  they  dangerously  threaten  the  interests 
of  the  people  as  a  whole.  And  in  international 
affairs,  wherever  there  is  common  exploitation  on 
the  part  of  many  powers  of  another  people,  as  is 
now  the  case  in  China,  it  is  plain  that  commercial 
interests  might  be  used  to  prevent  a  righteous 
and  vigorous  protest  on  behalf  of  justice,  on 
account  of  fear  of  pecuniary  loss.  A  diplomacy 
that  is  commercially  dominated  is  quite  too  likely 
to  be  timid  in  its  stand  for  international  justice, 
though  in  the  long  run  such  international  justice 
is  practically  certain  to  be  also  commercially 
profitable. 

8.  So,  too,  the  growing  sense  of  responsibility 
and  the  growing  exercise  of  police  power  on  the  part 
of  the  stronger  nations  hold  both  great  encourage- 
ment and  some  danger.  It  means  much  for  the 
world  that  there  should  be  growing  upon  the 
greater  nations  some  sense  of  moral  responsibility 
for  peace  and  good  order  and  justice  among  all 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  63 

peoples.  The  general  trend  of  the  action  of  Eng- 
land in  Egypt,  and  of  the  United  States  in  Cuba, 
Panama,  and  Liberia,  the  intervention  of  the 
Powers  in  the  Congo  State,  and  many  similar 
phenomena  belong,  on  the  whole,  to  the  encourag- 
ing events  of  our  time.  But  it  is  obvious  that,  in 
this  exercise  of  police  power,  there  is  constant 
danger,  on  the  part  of  the  stronger  nation,  of  using 
minor  disorders  as  mere  pretext  for  aggression, 
and  so  of  simply  overriding  the  lesser  state. 
Against  this  danger  all  the  stronger  nations  need 
to  be  continually  on  their  guard.  The  colonial 
and  commercial  expansion  of  the  recent  years  have 
some  disgraceful  illustrations  of  such  abuse  of 
national  police  power. 

9.  The  developing  sense  of  responsibility  on  the 
part  of  the  stronger  nations  is  naturally  allied  also 
to  the  increasing  influence  of  international  criticism. 
Japan  has  wisely  shown  itself  peculiarly  sensitive 
to  this  influence,  as  has  been  repeatedly  illustrated 
in  its  history,  and  as  is  shown,  especially,  in  the 
establishment  of  its  "Oriental  Information  Agency" 
in  New  York  City.  It  is  true  that  this  sensitive- 
ness to  international  criticism  may  go  so  far  as  to 
lead  to  the  covering  up  of  facts,  rather  than  to 
the  setting  of  matters  right.     Even  with  this  dis- 


64        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

count,  however,  the  growing  influence  of  inter- 
national criticism  is  to  be  hailed  as  one  of  the 
most  hopeful  indications  of  our  time,  and  as  con- 
taining the  assurance  of  some  steady  progress. 
Many  illustrations  might  be  given.  The  influence 
of  international  opinion,  for  example,  was  dis- 
tinctly felt  at  the  siege  of  Paris  in  1870,  and  un- 
doubtedly affected  Prussia's  action  at  that  time. 
It  was  definitely  in  mind,  in  Japan's  statement  of 
her  case,  in  entering  upon  the  war  with  Russia. 
And  it  probably  had  a  determining  effect  in  the 
conclusions  reached  by  the  recent  International 
Seal  Fur  Conference  between  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  Japan. 

10.  It  is,  indeed,  this  influence  of  International 
criticism  which  is,  perhaps,  to  be  regarded  as  a 
main  factor  in  the  progress  of  international  arbitra- 
tion and  of  the  peace  movement,  in  spite  of  growing 
armaments.  Aside  from  arbitrations  by  the  Hague 
Tribunal,  estabUshed  in  1899,  twenty-six  important 
cases,  involving  all  the  great  nations,  have  been 
settled  by  arbitration  since  1857,  twelve  of  them 
since  1885.  The  increasing  and  expected  use  of 
the  Hague  Tribunal,  in  really  important  cases 
between  leading  nations,  is  a  fact  of  the  greatest 
significance    and    promise.     The    United    States, 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  65 

Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Japan, 
Mexico,  and  Venezuela  have  all  entrusted  cases  to 
the  Tribunal.  Refusal  to  use  the  Tribunal  in  any 
reasonable  case  would  tend  disadvantageously  to 
isolate  the  nation  so  refusing.  It  seems  impossible 
that  the  mere  existence  of  this  court,  even  in  its 
present  form,  should  not  gradually  and  greatly 
diminish  the  sphere  of  war,  and,  in  time,  secure 
to  the  nations  by  mutual  agreement  relief  from 
the  present  intolerable  burden  of  enormous  arma- 
ments. Kidd's  conclusions  seem  warranted  :  "We 
live  in  the  presence  of  colossal  national  arma- 
ments, and  in  a  world,  therefore,  in  which  we  are 
continually  met  with  the  taunt  that  force  is  still 
everywhere  omnipotent.  It  may  be  perceived, 
however,  that  beneath  all  outward  appearances  a 
vast  change  has  been  taking  place.  In  the  ancient 
civilizations  the  tendency  to  conquest  was  an  in- 
herent principle  in  the  life  of  the  mihtary  state. 
It  is  no  longer  an  inherent  principle  in  the 
modern  state.  The  right  of  conquest  is  indeed 
still  acknowledged  in  the  international  law  of 
civihzed  states,  but  it  may  be  observed  to  be  a 
right  more  and  more  impracticable  among  the  more 
advanced  peoples.  Reflection,  moreover,  recalls 
the  fact  that  the  right  of  conquest  is  tending  to 


66        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

become  impracticable  and  impossible,  not,  as  is 
often  supposed,  because  of  the  huge  armaments 
of  resistance  with  which  it  might  be  opposed,  but 
because  the  sense  of  social  responsibility  has  been 
so  deepened  in  our  civilization  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  that  one  nation  should  attempt  to 
conquer  and  subdue  another  after  the  manner  of 
the  ancient  world.  It  would  be  regarded  as  so 
great  an  outrage  that  it  would  undoubtedly  prove 
to  be  one  of  the  maddest  and  one  of  the  most 
unprofitable  adventures  in  which  a  civilized  state 
could  engage.  Militarism,  it  may  be  distin- 
guished, is  becoming  mainly  defensive  amongst 
the  more  advanced  nations.  Like  the  civil  power 
within  the  state,  it  is  tending  to  represent,  rather, 
the  organized  means  of  resistance  to  the  methods 
of  force  should  these  methods  be  invoked  by 
others  temporarily  or  permanently  under  the  influ- 
ence of  less  evolved  standards  of  conduct."  ^ 

The  proposed  universal  arbitration  treaties 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and 
the  United  States  and  France,  seem  likely  to  be 
only  the  forerunners  of  many  treaties  of  the  kind, 
and  their  undertaking  is  an  event  of  great  moment 
in  international  relations,  and  in  the  progress  of 

1  Kidd,  art.  "  Sociology,  "  Enc.  Brit. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  67 

the  race.  The  proposal  has  itself  already  effected 
a  change  in  the  Anglo- Japanese  Treaty,  and  bids 
fair,  ultimately,  to  bring  far  greater  assurance  into 
the  relations  of  the  United  States  and  Japan.  In 
any  case,  the  considerations  which  show  that 
Japan  cannot  desire  war  with  the  United  States 
are  decisive.  Her  present  enormous  burden  of 
taxation,  the  difficulty  of  borrowing  money  for  a 
war  with  America,  the  certainty  that  such  a  war 
would  block  her  commercial  and  industrial  progress, 
and,  moreover,  the  like  certainty  that  China  and 
Russia  would  surely  take  advantage  of  the  situa- 
tion to  break  down  her  leadership  in  the  Orient  — 
all  make  it  clear  that  Japan,  as  little  as  the  United 
States,  could  desire  war.^  Nevertheless,  a  definite 
treaty  of  arbitration  with  Japan  would  be  a  decided 
gain  for  both  nations,  and  for  the  assurance  of 
the  world's  peace. 

II.  No  survey  of  present  national  phenomena 
can  fail  to  take  account  also  of  the  pressure  of  the 
Far-Eastern  Question.  It  is,  indeed,  the  largest 
question  in  the  world  poHtics  of  to-day.  To  put 
the  matter  in  the  briefest  compass  —  China's  im- 

^  Cf.  J.  W.  Jenks,  "The  Japanese  in  Manchuria,"  The  Outlook, 
March  11,  1911;  Hon.  J.  W.  Foster,  "The  Japanese  War  Scare," 

in  International  Conciliation,  October,  1910. 


68        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

mense  population  and  enormous  potential  wealth, 
the  comparative  openness  of  some  of  her  richest 
land  in  Manchuria,  and  the  ease  with  which  Mon- 
golia can  be  overrun,  when  coupled  with  her 
present  military  weakness  and  lack  of  national 
unity,  constitute  the  constant  lure  for  gain  and 
for  conquest.  The  other  chief  factors  in  the  Far- 
Eastern  Question  are  these :  Japan's  natural  am- 
bition for  oriental  leadership,  her  military  prestige, 
her  enormous  army  and  navy  program,  and  her 
scarcely  concealed  intention  practically  to  annex 
south  Manchuria;^  Russia's  continued  aggressive 
pressure  on  the  north,  and  the  Russo-Japanese 
agreement  in  which  Japan  and  Russia  compose 
their  own  quarrel  in  an  agreement  to  help  each 
other  in  mutual  aggressions  on  China ;  England's 
tacit  consent  to  all  this  program  of  her  ally,  Japan ; 
the  general  provocative  attitude  of  the  other 
nations  concerned  towards  China;  China's  un- 
doubted awakening,  and  rapid  progress  toward 
Western  civiHzation ;  and  the  declared  oriental 
policy  of  the  United  States.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, Manchuria  becomes  naturally  the  region 

1  See  art.  by  Adachi  Kinaosuki,  World's  Work,  June,  1910; 
cf.  Millard,  America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Question,  pp.  176  ff. ; 
Harrison,  Peace  or  War,  East  of  Baikal,  pp.  248  ff. 


OF    PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  69 

of  the  greatest  possible  commercial  development, 
the  center  of  the  keenest  commercial  interest 
and  competition,  and  the  special  scene  of  the 
political  aspects,  also,  of  the  Far-Eastern  Ques- 
tion. 

The  diplomatic  position  of  the  United  States  in 
the  Far  East  declared  by  John  Hay,  and  illus- 
trated in  President  Taft's  avowed  pohcy  in  the 
Philippines,  involves  the  three  principles  of  no 
selfish  exploitation  of  dependencies,  of  the  "open 
door"  in  China,  and  of  respect  for  China's  integrity. 
This  position  of  America  is  just  and  right  (except 
so  far  as  the  policy  of  the  "open  door"  in  China 
might  conceivably  infringe  China's  rights),  and  has 
been  accepted  in  theory  by  all  the  Powers  involved, 
and  was  reaffirmed  in  the  Russo-Japanese  War 
Treaty.  Ultimately,  it  is  the  only  position  that 
can  make  for  righteous  peace.  Japan  cannot 
fairly  object  to  China's  following  her  example,  in 
adopting  Western  education  and  organization,  and 
so  taking  her  deserved  place  among  the  chief 
nations,  and  China  is  naturally  somewhat  sur- 
prised at  what  she  feels  to  be  Japan's  attitude  of 
opposition.  China's  present  reform  movement  is 
undoubtedly  genuine  and  is  making  fair  progress. 
Under   the  circumstances,   the  other  Powers  are 


70        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

certainly  bound  to  encourage  and  to  help  China 
in  this  remaking  of  her  national  life.  In  the  end, 
that  must  prove  the  most  profitable  poUcy,  even 
commercially,  for  all  the  powers  concerned,  that 
do  not  seek  the  absolute  dismemberment  of  the 
Chinese  Empire.  For,  as  Secretary  Taft  said,  at 
Shanghai,  "a  trade  which  depends  for  its  profit 
on  the  backwardness  of  a  people  in  developing 
their  own  resources,  and  upon  their  inability  to 
value  at  the  proper  relative  prices  that  which  they 
have  to  sell,  and  that  which  they  have  to  buy,  is 
not  one  which  can  be  counted  upon  as  stable  or 
permanent.  .  .  .  For  the  reasons  I  have  given,  it 
does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  cry  of  '  China  for 
the  Chinese'  should  frighten  any  one.  All  that 
is  meant  by  that  is  that  China  should  devote  her 
energies  to  the  development  of  her  immense  re- 
sources, to  the  elevation  of  her  industrious  people, 
to  the  enlargement  of  her  trade,  and  to  the  ad- 
ministrative reform  of  the  Empire  as  a  great 
national  government.  Changes  of  this  kind  would 
only  increase  our  trade  with  her.  Our  greatest 
export  trade  is  with  the  countries  most  advanced 
in  business  methods  and  in  the  development  of 
their  particular  resources.  In  the  Philippines  we 
have  learned  that  the  policy  which  is  best  for  the 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  7 1 

Filipinos  is  best  in  the  long  run  for  the  countries 
who  would  do  business  with  the  Islands."  ^ 

But  one  is  reluctantly  led  to  fear  that  Japan's 
whole  diplomatic  and  governmental  policy  is  not 
guided  by  real  sympathy  with  any  of  the  three  aims 
of  America's  diplomatic  position  in  the  Far  East. 
She  seems  unwilling,  in  either  Korea  or  Formosa, 
to  take  the  full  attitude  of  freedom  from  selfish 
exploitation  which  the  United  States  has  avowedly 
taken  in  the  Philippines ;  not  to  be  genuinely 
favorable  to  the  "open  door"  policy  in  Man- 
churia ;  and  not  to  intend  truly  to  respect  China's 
integrity,  or  her  administration  in  Manchuria.  In 
all  this,  as  much  as  one  may  regret  it,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  see  the  matter  from  Japan's  point  of 
view,  with  her  asserted  need  of  outlet  for  her 
population,  with  her  very  natural  desire  for  leader- 
ship in  the  Orient,  and  with  the  vision  she  has  of 
an  awakening  China.  This,  it  may  be  suspected, 
is  the  real  point  of  contention  between  the  United 
States  and  Japan,  and  nothing  else,  and  just  here 
lies,  also,  the  nub  of  the  Far-Eastern  Question  in 
all  its  aspects.-  There  will  be  no  Far-Eastern 
Question,  in  its  present  form,   that  need  involve 

1  Quoted  by  Millard,  America  and  Ike  Far  Eastern  Question, 
p.  376.  ^Ci.  Millard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  57  ff. 


72         THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

any  serious  unpleasantness,  if  the  open  door  policy- 
is  honestly  maintained,   and  if  simple  justice  is 
done  to  China.     Professor  Jenks's  conclusion,   in 
his  singularly  just  discussion  of  The  Japanese  in 
Manchuria,'^  seems  wholly  warranted.     "The  per- 
manent stabihty  not  only  of  trade  interests  but 
also  of  poUtical  interests  and  the  maintenance  of 
peace  seem,  on  the  whole,  more  hkely  with  Man- 
churia ultimately  in  the  poHtical  control  of  China 
than  in  that  of  Japan,  and  doubtless  the  Japanese 
statesmen   (for,   after  all,   the  events  of  the  last 
few  years  show  that  there  are  no  more  far-sighted 
statesmen  than  the  Japanese)  recognize  this  fact. 
Indeed,  in  an  interview  mentioned  in  the  Japan 
Times  of  June   21,   1910,  Viscount  Hayashi  said 
that    the    chief    object    of    the    Franco-Japanese 
Treaty  was  'to  respect  the  sovereignty  of  China,' 
which  he  characterized  as  'the  very  keynote  of 
oriental  peace,'  an  expression  which  seems  to  me 
as  wise  as  it  is  happily  put."     It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  other    Japanese   statesmen  share   this  view; 
for,  in  the  long  run,  it  is  hardly  to  be  doubted 
that  Japan's  own  good,  as  well  as  the  interests  of 
all  concerned,  will  be  best  served  if  Japan  scru- 
pulously carries  out  her  own  earlier  and  repeated 

1  The  Outlook,  March  11,  191 1. 


OF    PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  73 

promises  concerning  Manchuria.  The  other  poHcy, 
to  which  she  is  evidently  tempted,  would  tend  in 
the  end  dangerously  to  isolate  her,  and  to  provoke 
general  ill-will. 

In  the  meantime,  China  is  undoubtedly  moving 
forward  in  educational,  mihtary,  judicial,  and  gov- 
ernmental development,  and  has  back  of  her 
enormous  resources  of  wealth,  of  numbers,  and  of 
native  abihty.  Her  greatest  weakness  is  her  lack 
of  national  unity  and  of  a  strong  central  adminis- 
tration.^ Both  grow  out  of  her  besetting  fault  of 
suspicion  and  distrust  of  all  strong  leadership. 
There  are  many  possible  points  of  criticism  in  her 
reforming  attempts,  but  considering  the  shortness 
of  the  time  in  which  they  have  been  operative, 
and  the  high  native  ability  of  the  Chinese,  I  can- 
not believe  that  a  despondent  view  is  justified. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  China  will  not 
always  remain  unable  to  prevent  unjust  aggres- 
sion and  exploitation,  though  it  will  be  by  no 
Boxer  revolution.  She  is  bound,  I  think,  to  take 
her  place  peacefully  among  the  leading  nations  of 
the  modern  world,  and  her  entrance  upon  that 
estate  will  be  an  even  greater  event  than  Japan's 

1  See  the  rather  pessimistic  views  of  The  Future  of  China,  by 
C.  D.  Jameson  and  George  Kennan,  The  Outlook,  July  15,  1911. 


74        TKE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

similar  achievement,  and  will  affect  more  mani- 
festly the  whole  life  of  the  world. 

12.  Finally,  among  these  significant  national 
changes  should  be  mentioned  the  rapidly  rising 
moral  standards  in  the  United  States  in  business, 
industrial,  and  political  life.  These  deserve  par- 
ticular mention,  for  the  movement  of  Western 
civihzation  is  nowhere  more  rapid  or  intense  than 
in  the  United  States.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
in  the  business  world  methods  are  now  repudiated 
that  were  common  practice  twenty-five  years  ago 
and  were  regarded  as  quite  legitimate.  In  the 
whole  range  of  industrial  life  a  new  moral  sensitive- 
ness to  the  demand  for  essential  justice  is  mani- 
fest, even  where  it  is  plain  that  the  evils  are  not 
yet  cured.  In  political  life,  while  very  much 
remains  to  be  achieved,  in  harmony  with  a 
world-wide  movement,  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
through  political  position  has  come  to  be  regarded 
as  disgraceful,  and  —  what  is  still  more  hopeful  — 
there  has  come  in  that  growing  sense  of  respon- 
sibihty  to  the  whole  people,  that  has  been  already 
mentioned.  The  significant  element  in  the  revolt 
against  "Cannonism"  lies  just  here.  It  is  the 
repudiation  of  the  old  theory  that  legislation  is  to 
be  the  outcome  of  a  compromise  of  various  cor- 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  75 

porate  or  local  interests,  instead  of  being  deter- 
mined by  a  clear  view  of  the  interests  of  the  people 
as  a  whole.  There  is  a  manifest  increasing  deter- 
mination that  financial  or  corporate  interests,  how- 
ever great,  are  not  to  dominate  the  national  Hfe. 

If  American  life  is  to  reap  the  full  fruit  of  these 
rising  moral  standards,  there  must  be,  on  the  part 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  some  real  insight  into 
their  significance,  and  intelligent  sympathy  and 
cooperation;  for  none  of  these  can  be  regarded, 
as  yet,  as  fully  assured.  Many  men  are  yielding 
perforce  to  the  new  standards,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
who  would  rejoice  in  their  overthrow. 

13.  As  a  whole,  all  these  national  movements 
indicate  some  growing,  even  if  half  unconscious, 
sense  that  the  old  opposition  between  an  atomic, 
nihilistic  individualism  and  a  swamping  socialism 
is  out  of  date  and  should  be  transcended.  Neither 
is  adequate.  Both  newly  conceived  and  in  con- 
junction are  necessary.  This  growing  conscious- 
ness is  Hkely  greatly  to  affect  party  alignments  in 
the  years  just  ahead.  These  movements  rather 
bear  witness,  then,  to  the  fact  that  there  must  be, 
ultimately,  such  reverence  for  personaUty  as  shall 
insure  both  cooperation  or  state  action  and  indi- 
vidual initiative  at  every  stage,  and  both  under 


76        THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

ethical  guidance.  Cooperative  action  through  the 
state  and  in  other  ways  will  be  employed,  not  to 
set  aside  individual  initiative,  but  more  perfectly 
to  secure  it,  —  sedulously  to  preserve  for  the  life 
of  community  and  nation  the  full  contribution  of 
each  personality.  This  should  make  certain  that, 
on  the  one  hand,  there  shall  be  no  tyranny  of 
force,  of  wealth,  of  reUgion,  of  majority,  or  even  of 
the  whole,  over  the  sacred  rights  of  the  individual ; 
and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  individual  shall 
constantly  recognize  his  social  obhgation.  Political 
and  social  Ufe  would  be  no  longer  a  matter  of 
balance  or  barter  between  interests  all  belonging 
to  the  present,  or  all  material.  The  determining 
consideration  would  be,  not  the  policy  of  selhsh 
or  material  profit,  but  absolute  loyalty  to  the 
principle  of  reverence  for  personality,  as  a  rightly 
dominant  moral  and  rehgious  conviction,  that  alone 
can  insure  the  developing  individual  in  the  develop- 
.  ing  society. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of 
Present  External  Conditions  II:  The 
Comprehensive  Challenge  of  the  New 
External  Conditions 

These,  then,  may  be  regarded  as  the  outstand- 
ing external  conditions  of  our  time:  the  progres- 
sive conquest  over  the  forces  of  nature;  the 
resulting  enormous  economic  development;  the 
world-wide  economic  solidarity;  the  consequent 
stupendous  increase  of  wealth;  the  extending 
poHcy  of  national  conservation  of  natural  resources ; 
the  inevitable  growth  of  great  cities ;  the  far  finer 
division  of  labor;  the  indefinitely  closer  connec- 
tions of  men  the  world  over,  through  improved 
methods  of  transportation,  commerce,  communica- 
tion, and  the  press ;  the  resulting  increasing  asso- 
ciation of  the  races;  the  rapidly  advancing  appli- 
cation of  scientific  discoveries  for  the  betterment 
of  human  life ;  the  trend  toward  universal  educa- 
tion; the  movement  for  the  advancement  of 
women;     the   modern   foreign   missionary   move- 

77 


78        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ment;  and  the  swift  and  revolutionary  changes 
among  many  nations.  The  most  notable  of  these 
national  changes  are :  the  rise  of  Japan ;  the 
peaceful  revolution  in  Turkey;  the  granting  of 
constitutional  government  in  Russia;  the  adop- 
tion of  Western  education  in  China ;  the  similar 
national  movements  in  Persia  and  in  many  other 
states;  the  "rise  of  the  native"  in  dependencies; 
the  increasing  democratic  trend  throughout  the 
world ;  the  widespread  SociaHstic  and  Nihilistic 
movements ;  the  commercial  pressure  on  poHtical 
and  diplomatic  action ;  the  growing  exercise  of 
police  power  and  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the 
stronger  nations ;  the  greater  influence  of  inter- 
national criticism;  the  progress  of  international 
arbitration  and  the  peace  movement ;  the  pres- 
sure of  the  Far-Eastern  Question ;  the  rising  moral 
standards  in  American  business,  industrial,  and 
poHtical  life ;  and  the  growing  sense  of  the  neces- 
sity of  rising  above  both  mere  atomic  individualism 
and  swamping  socialism.  All  these  new  external 
conditions  of  our  day,  we  have  seen,  demand  at 
every  point,  not  only  intellectual  insight,  but 
higher  moral  development  and  larger  religious 
ideals,  if  they  are  not  to  prove  disintegrating  and 
degrading  rather  than  elevating. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  79 

These  conditions,  thus,  even  singly,  constitute  a 
challenge  to  the  educational  and  religious  forces 
the  world  over,  to  every  individual  and  to  every 
nation ;  for  at  bottom  all  these  problems  are  moral 
and  religious.  But  before  we  leave  them  there 
will  be  decided  gain  in  considering  them  in  their 
entirety,  to  get  a  more  comprehensive  sense  of  the 
challenge  they  bring  to  our  generation. 

Looking,  then,  at  the  external  conditions  as  a 
whole,  let  us  ask  what  their  meaning  is?  what 
the  dangers  and  problems  involved?  what  the 
qualities  demanded?  and  what  the  elements  of 
encouragement  they  contain  ? 


THEIR  MEANING 

I.  In  the  first  place,  the  conquest  of  nature's 
forces,  the  enormous  economic  development,  the 
world-wide  economic  solidarity,  the  stupendous 
increase  of  wealth,  the  conservation  of  natural 
resources,  and  the  growth  of  great  cities  —  all 
manifestly  mean  that  to  this  generation  are  com- 
mitted staggering  resources  of  power  and  of  wealth. 
They  show  the  human  race  coming  into  a  far  greater 
fullness   of   its  inheritance  on   the  material   side 


8o        THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

than  ever  before ;    though  the  resources  cannot  be 
regarded,  as  yet,  as  equitably  distributed. 

2.  The  same  conditions,  coupled  with  the  trend 
toward  universal  education,  mean,  in  the  second 
place,  generally  increased  comfort  and  ease  of  life; 
though  here  too,  while  there  has  been  gain  for 
practically  all  the  people,  there  has  not  been  due 

"slribution  of  the  comfort  and  ease  that  should 
;j11ow  from  increased  power  and  wealth.  This 
very  comfort  and  ease,  too,  have  obvious  moral 
dangers. 

3.  There  is  involved,  again,  in  these  same 
m.aterial  gains  and  in  the  increasing  division  of 
labor  the  possibility,  at  least,  of  greater  leisure  for 
the  higher  ends  of  life.  For  the  gains  through 
machinery,  the  reduction  of  working  hours,  the 
movement  for  a  general  six  days'  working  week, 
and  increased  production,  should  all  make 
drudgery  less  necessary.  The  possible  high  signifi- 
cance of  such  greater  leisure  for  the  growth  and 
happiness  of  the  individual,  and  for  the  advance- 
ment of  society,  is  never  to  be  overlooked.  But 
it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  sense  of  leisure, 
as  well  as  leisure  itself,  must  be,  in  no  small  part, 
a  conquest  by  each  individual,  especially  through 
simplicity  of  life  and  the  refusal  to  be  dominated 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  8 1 

by  things  and  conventions.  Still  more  must  the 
wise  use  of  leisure  be  our  individual  achievement. 
Even  a  sociaKst  writer  can  say:  "I  believe  that, 
for  scientific  evolution,  we  must  'go  slow.'  Hu- 
manity has  not  yet  learnt  how  to  use  its  leisure 
reasonably;  it  wants  longer  discipline  under  the 
slavery  of  class."  ^ 

4.  The  material  gains,  once  more,  when  taken 
with  the  closer  connections  of  men,  through  im- 
proved methods  of  transportation,  commerce, 
communication,  and  the  press,  and  the  increasing 
association  of  the  races,  show,  too,  that  men  are 
placed  in  far  larger,  more  numerous,  and  more 
complex  relations  than  ever  before,  —  the  whole 
world  virtually  contributing  to  every  man.  This 
possible  sudden  unifying  of  the  feeling  of  an 
entire  people,  for  example,  through  the  press,  it 
may  be  noted,  may  carry  with  it,  at  times,  some- 
thing very  like  the  mob  spirit,  that  has  its  own 
plain  dangers. 

5.  These  larger,  more  numerous,  and  more  com- 
plex relations  imply,  in  turn,  that  in  increasing 
degree  forced  interdependence  and  cooperation  on  an 
unparalleled  scale  are  necessary,  if  society  is  to 
go  on  at  all.  This  will  require  ultimately  some 
1  Constable  in  The  Socialist  Review. 


82        THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

deeper  spiritual  unity,  and  bears  witness  here, 
too,  to  the  peculiar  religious  need  of  our  time.^ 

6.  At  the  same  time,  these  new  external  condi- 
tions present  the  advance  of  universal  education, 
with  all  that  that  involves;  and  indicate  that 
moral  and  religious  development  on  a  prodigious 
scale  is  already  going  on,  as  manifested  in  some  of 
the  greatest  ideal  enterprises  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen  —  like  the  comprehensive  aim  of  the 
scientific  betterment  of  human  life,  the  movement 
for  the  advancement  of  women,  the  modern  for- 
eign missionary  movement,  the  general  democratic 
trend  in  national  development,  and  the  advance 
toward  considerate  relations  among  the  nations 
and  universal  peace  —  all  this  side  by  side  with 
dangerous  antagonistic  tendencies. 

This,  then,  in  a  word,  is  the  meaning  of  the  new 
external  world :  staggering  resources,  increased  com- 
fort and  ease  of  Hfe,  the  possibihtyof  greater  leisure, 
far  larger  and  more  complex  relations,  forced  inter- 
dependence on  an  unparalleled  scale,  the  advance 
of  universal  education,  and  the  evidence  of  a  pro- 
digious moral  and  religious  development  as  already 
going  on,  though  retarded  at  many  points. 

»  Cf.  Eucken,  The  Meaning  and  Value  of  Life,  pp.  68,  129. 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  83 

II 

THE  DANGERS  AND  PROBLEMS  INVOLVED 

It  is  impossible  thoughtfully  to  review  the  ex- 
ternal conditions  of  our  generation,  without  being 
impressed,  as  we  have  already  seen,  not  only  with 
the  changed  meaning  of  our  age,  but  also  with 
the  serious  dangers  and  problems  which  it  in- 
volves. It  is  particularly  worth  while  to  try  to 
bring  these  special  problems  into  a  comprehensive 
survey,  if  we  are  to  face  them  intelligently  and 
successfully.  First  of  all,  in  the  light  of  the  enor- 
mous material  development  of  our  generation,  the 
problem  of  the  better  distribution  of  wealth  is 
steadily  more  and  more  pressing.  The  too  fre- 
quent separation  of  work  and  happiness,  too,  con- 
fronts us.  As  a  whole  and  throughout  these  ex- 
ternal conditions,  there  is  to  be  descried,  also,  the 
peril  of  the  lower  attainment,  —  the  danger  of 
domination  by  the  lesser  goods.  And,  as  charac- 
teristic of  our  time,  there  must  be  recognized,  not 
only  the  prevalent  "passion  for  material  comfort," 
as  John  Rae  calls  it,  but  also  the  insane  rush  of 
life ;  the  sense  of  the  complexity  of  life  and  of  its 
conflicting  ideals ;  the  consequent  lack  of  the  sense 
of  law  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world;   and  the 


84        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

powerful  influence  of  race  prejudices  and  antago- 
nisms. Each  of  these  problems  deserves  a  some- 
what fuller  statement. 

I.  Many  characteristic  phenomena  reveal,  in  the 
first  place,  the  pressure  of  the  problem  of  the  better 
distribution  of  wealth.  The  incredible  increase  of 
wealth  that  has  come  in  our  time,  and  the  extent 
to  which  financial  control  of  vast  national  interests 
has  been  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  small 
groups  of  men,  especially  in  America,  have  fairly 
compelled  the  nation  to  recognize  the  present  im- 
perative nature  of  this  problem.  Existing  con- 
ditions simply  cannot  continue.  The  pressure  of 
this  problem  is  reflected  in  the  whole  present- 
day  work  of  charity ;  in  the  relations  of  labor  and 
capital ;  in  the  socialistic  movement ;  in  such 
schemes  for  taxation  as  were  embodied  in  the 
recent  English  Budget,  with  its  certain  world- 
wide influence ;  in  the  growing  demand  for  national 
control  of  corporations;  and  as  one  of  the  main 
factors  in  the  movement  for  national  control  of 
natural  resources. 

The  problem  is  much  too  difficult  to  be  solved 
by  blind  antagonisms.  It  demands  unbiased 
scientific  study,  and  an  insight  that  can  recognize 
the  widely  different  new  conditions,  and  that  can 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  8$ 

see  that  at  this  point  our  ethical  and  religious 
principles  have  been  all  too  little  brought  to  bear. 
An  ultimate  financial  oligarchy  the  nations  cannot 
bear  —  a  republic  least  of  all.  But  the  economic 
trend  toward  great  combinations  of  capital  has 
been  practically  inevitable,  and  is  not  the  result 
of  mere  selfish  scheming.  The  problem  in  its 
present  proportions  is  comparatively  new  for  rich 
and  poor  alike,  and  will  not  be  solved  by  mutual 
recriminations.  Its  solution  is  likely  to  show,  as 
so  often  at  critical  points  in  the  history  of  civili- 
zation, the  voluntary  extension  of  privileges  on 
the  part  of  the  privileged  to  those  without  them. 
But  the  problem  is  not  to  be  settled,  either  by 
the  mere  demand  of  overwhelming  numbers,  on 
the  one  hand  —  power  in  the  hands  of  the  many, 
or  by  the  power  of  money  combination,  on  the 
other  hand  —  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few; 
though  it  is  plain  that  this  very  situation  contains 
pecuHar  danger,  especially  for  a  republic.  This 
problem,  therefore,  is  rightly  securing  the  earnest 
study  and  efforts  of  some  of  the  ablest  of  modern 
leaders.  The  solution  of  the  problem  requires, 
too,  not  pity,  primarily;  not  patronizing,  still 
less;  but  first  of  all,  self-respecting  and  other- 
respecting    justice,    in    the    hght   of    a    thorough 


86        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

study  of  all  the  facts  in  their  farthest  and  deepest 
bearings.  After  that,  it  will  be  time  enough  to 
talk  about  pity  and  benevolence ;  for  benevolence 
angers  where  justice  is  refused.  This  critical  prob- 
lem plainly  needs  not  only  clear  intellectual  analy- 
sis, but  moral  insight  and  determination. 

2.  The  problem  of  the  separation  of  work  and 
happiness,  also,  is  peculiarly  forced  upon  this 
generation.  Its  pressure  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
amusement-madness  of  the  rich  and  idle,  that 
cannot  help  provoking  comparisons  that  threaten 
the  peace  of  society ;  in  the  fact  that  happiness  is 
too  largely  absent  from  the  work  of  the  common 
laborer  and  mechanic ;  and  that  the  rich,  too, 
especially  of  the  second  generation,  seldom  have 
any  work  worth  doing ;  and  in  the  further  fact 
that  the  poor  and  rich  alike  know  too  little  how 
to  use  their  leisure  wisely.  That  wise  use  of  leisure 
cannot  come  to  either  poor  or  rich  without  the 
possession  of  better  and  larger  ideals  and  interests. 

3.  The  peril  of  the  lower  attainment,  the  danger 
of  domination  by  the  lesser  goods,  is  particularly 
great  for  our  time,  just  because  the  tasks  and 
resources  involved  in  our  modern  material  develop- 
ment are  so  stupendous.  "Our  own  age,"  as 
Eucken  says,  ''is  anything  but  feeble  and  idle,  it 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  87 

throbs  with  a  glowing  vitality  which  inspires  it  to 
undertake  the  most  strenuous  work  —  work  rich 
in  great  achievements.  It  is  deeply  passionate, 
unwearyingly  progressive,  and  essentially  revolu- 
tionary in  spirit.  And  if  all  the  individual  suc- 
cesses which  have  been  won  along  specialized 
lines  do  not  issue  in  any  general  result  affecting 
the  whole  condition  of  humanity,  if  our  profoundly 
complicated  existence  prove  to  have  nothing  at  the 
heart  of  it,  the  incongruity  of  the  situation  is  more 
than  can  be  borne  with  composure."  ^  And  yet 
this  is  just  the  outcome  to  which  we  are  exposed. 
Men  have  girded  themselves  in  so  many  directions 
for  world-tasks,  and  their  work  has  taken  on, 
therefore,  so  titanic  a  quahty,  that  they  easily  for- 
get that  success  in  these  merely  material  schemes 
is,  after  all,  only  building  "greater  barns,"  not 
necessarily  greater  lives.  The  men  of  our  genera- 
tion, therefore,  are  especially  tempted  to  stop  in 
their  work,  and  to  allow  the  purely  relative  goods 
to  slip  into  the  place  of  the  absolute  good,  to  their 
own  ultimate  undoing.  Only  a  deeper  spirituality^ 
once  more,  can  meet  the  modern  need. 

4.  It  is  natural,   too,   that  this  period  of  pro- 
digious material   development   should  be   accom- 

'  The  Meaning  and  Value  of  Life,  p.  66. 


88        THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

panied  with  the  prevalent  passion  for  material  com- 
fort, involved  in  the  domination  of  the  lesser  goods. 
It  is  not  strange  that  men  should  have  become 
dizzy-headed,  overwhelmed  for  the  time,  with  the 
modern  onrush  of  the  material ;  and  should  feel 
that,  whatever  else  is  lost,  an  abundant  supply  of 
the  comforts  that  money  can  buy  must  be  had. 
Professor  James  noted,  as  a  single  indication  of  this 
spirit,  "the  abject  fear  of  poverty  on  the  part  of 
the  educated."  And  one  is  reminded  of  Matthew 
Arnold's  somewhat  cynical  division  of  the  English 
people  into  frivolous  upper  classes,  materialized 
middle  classes,  and  brutalized  lower  classes.  Enor- 
mous increase  of  material  possessions  was  sure  to 
bring  this  danger. 

5.  Closely  connected  with  this  passion  for  ma- 
terial comfort,  as  well  as  with  the  quickened  pulse 
and  complexity  of  modern  life,  is  the  insane  rush 
of  our  times.  This  manifests  itself  in  the  prevalent 
lack  of  the  sense  of  leisure,  even  for  the  enjoyment 
and  appreciation  of  the  material  goods  themselves 
—  to  say  nothing  of  ideal  values  —  and  in  the 
even  more  ominous  lack  of  thought,  for  the  mastery 
of  the  problems  of  our  time,  and  for  the  mastery 
of  our  individual  lives.  For  without  leisure  and 
without  thought,  emptiness  of  life  must  result. 


OF  PRESENT  EXTERNAL  CONDITIONS     89 

6.  It  is  plain,  too,  that  these  new  external  con- 
ditions, upon  which  we  have  been  dwelling,  have 
necessarily  brought  to  men  a  new  sense  of  the  com- 
plexity of  life.  Economic  development,  division  of 
labor,  the  press,  and  all  that  these  involve,  have 
complicated  existence  for  every  son  of  man  to-day. 
There  is,  consequently,  more  and  more  borne  in 
upon  the  consciousness  of  the  thoughtful,  at  least, 
the  necessity  of  some  way  to  greater  simplicity.^ 

7.  This  sense  of  the  complexity  of  life  is  re- 
vealed in  the  accompanying  sense  of  the  conflicting 
ideals  of  our  time,  and  in  the  feeling,  therefore, 
that  none  are  authoritative.  It  has  been  often 
pointed  out  that  in  those  places,  Hke  port-cities, 
where  various  civilizations  mingle  and  various 
conflicting  ideals  are  manifested,  the  sense  of 
the  authority  of  the  moral  greatly  suffers.  Just 
because  of  the  unity  of  the  world  of  our  day  and 
of  the  universal  diffusion  of  all  ideals,  the  whole 
world  now  is  much  in  this  situation  of  the  port- 
city;  and  the  present  is  therefore,  for  practically 
all  men,  a  time  of  dangerous  transition.  Our 
generation  needs,  as  no  generation  has  ever  needed, 
the  sense  of  absolutely  ruling  ideals.  And  that  is 
a  deep  religious  need. 

^  Cf.  Eucken,  op.  cit.,  p.  145. 


QO        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

8.  Out  of  the  sense  of  conflicting  ideals  and  the 
feeling  that,  therefore,  none  were  authoritative, 
has  naturally  grown  the  prevalent  lack  of  the  sense 
of  law  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world.  The  spirit 
of  the  times  seems  too  often  to  be  merely  easy- 
going; to  be  characterized  by  moral  indifference 
and  false  tolerance  and  the  feeling  that  nothing 
greatly  matters;  just  as  men  say  in  the  Orient, 
"Everything  goes  in  the  East."  And,  paradoxi- 
cally enough,  this  lack  of  the  sense  of  law  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  world  occurs  in  an  age  that 
prides  itself  upon  being  a  scientific  age ;  though 
the  great  central  contention  of  science  is  insistence 
on  the  universality  of  law. 

9.  Finally,  in  the  dangers  and  problems  in- 
volved in  the  new  external  conditions  of  our  time, 
must  be  recognized  the  pressing  problem  of  race 
prejudices  and  antagonisms.  Just  because  the 
races  have  never  been  so  closely  or  so  threateningly 
associated  as  to-day,  is  it  incumbent  upon  the  men 
of  the  present  to  face  and  to  solve  these  racial 
prejudices  and  hostilities.  This  problem  could  be 
partially  evaded  by  an  earlier  generation;  we 
cannot  escape  it.. 

The  significant  fact  to  be  noted  in  this  survey  is 
the   insistent  and   unavoidable  demand  made  by 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  9 1 

these  several  problems  of  our  time  upon  the  moral 
and  religious  forces.  Can  we  see  exactly  what  this 
demand  involves? 

Ill 

THE   QUALITIES   DEMANDED 

Let  US  put  the  situation,  as  we  have  now  re- 
viewed it,  in  the  compactest  summary.  We  have 
noted  that  the  external  conditions  of  our  modern 
world  mean  at  least :  staggering  resources  of  wealth 
and  power,  increased  comfort  and  ease  of  life,  the 
possibility  of  greater  leisure,  far  larger  and  more 
complex  relations,  and  forced  interdependence  on 
an  unparalleled  scale.  The  problems  resulting 
were  found  to  be :  the  distribution  of  wealth,  the 
too  general  separation  of  work  and  happiness,  the 
peril  of  domination  by  the  lesser  goods,  the  passion 
for  material  comfort,  the  rush  of  life,  the  sense  of 
the  complexity  of  life  and  of  its  conflicting  ideals, 
the  consequent  lack  of  the  sense  of  law  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  world,  and  race  antagonisms. 
For  what  qualities  do  these  conditions  and  prob- 
lems call?  For  the  thoughtful  lover  of  his  race 
cannot  help  wishing  to  make  clear  and  definite 
the  precise  goals  that  the  moral  and  religious  forces 


92        THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

must  set  before  themselves,  if  they  are  adequately 
to  fit  this  generation  for  its  difficult  task.  Here 
are  certain  definite  conditions.  They  plainly  in- 
volve certain  special  problems  and  dangers.  What 
precise  qualities  does  this  generation  need  to  meet 
them  ?     This  is  our  immediate  question. 

I.  First  of  all,  it  must  be  plain  that  the  pos- 
session of  such  staggering  resources  of  wealth  and 
power  over  nature  as  characterize  this  generation 
demands,  in  superlative  degree,  self-control,  severely 
disciplined  powers.  Self-control  should  be  an  out- 
standing characteristic  of  the  present  generation. 
Is  it  so  ?  Is  our  education  definitely  aiming  at 
such  preeminent  self-mastery?  But  without  such 
self-mastery  there  cannot  be  either  power  rightly 
to  employ  these  stupendous  resources,  or  capacity 
wisely  to  use  the  possible  leisure  that  modern 
advances  involve.  Let  one  make  the  situation 
concrete  to  himself,  in  the  case,  for  example,  of 
the  second  generation  of  the  very  rich.  Every- 
thing that  money  can  buy  is  within  their  reach. 
They  have  no  significant  work  that  they  must  do. 
The  temptations  in  many  directions  are  frightful 
for  the  undisciplined  will.  Now,  is  this  inherited 
wealth  to  be  anything  but  a  curse  to  them  and  a 
menace    to    the    community  ?     If    so,    they    need 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  93 

clearly  to  perceive  that  they  are  handling  prodigious 
power,  and  that  such  power  undirected  or  mis- 
directed is  immensely  destructive,  both  to  the 
owner  and  to  all  his  fellows.  The  very  first  con- 
dition of  its  wise  use  is  self-control.  The  owners 
of  such  wealth  need  such  rigorous  self-discipline 
as  might  fit  for  a  king's  task ;  for  some  of  them 
are  wielding  power  such  as  few  kings  have  ever 
had.  And  because  self-mastery  cannot  be  merely 
negative,  the  possession  of  these  astounding  re- 
sources requires,  further,  as  we  have  earlier  seen, 
the  vision  of  ideals  and  enterprises  high  enough 
and  great  enough  to  dominate  the  lower  and  selfish 
interests.  Nothing  less  can  truly  deliver  from 
selfishness,  self-indulgence,  and  self-destruction. 
This  makes  imperative  severe  moral  and  religious 
training,  and  an  introduction  to  the  highest  re- 
Hgious  ideals  and  to  the  surpassing  enterprises  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Only  so  can  there  be  positive 
conquest  of  the  immense  material  resources  of 
our  time,  —  the  harnessing  of  these  powers  and 
resources  for  the  achievement  of  still  greater  goals. 
2.  It  is  equally  true,  in  the  second  place,  that 
the  vastly  increased  complexity  of  the  relations  of 
our  modern  life  demands  thoughtful  discrimina- 
tion among  its  many  values  and  a  far  greater  sim- 


94        THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

plicity  of  life,  side  by  side  with  the  recognition  of 
its  complexity.  Ideals  and  values  and  theories 
and  pleasures  and  means  of  all  kinds  have  come 
flooding  in  from  every  people,  until  life  is  in  dan- 
ger of  being  swamped  by  its  own  complexity. 
Our  time  tends  to  an  undiscriminating  acceptance 
of  everything,  and  to  a  restless  willingness  to  try 
all  proposals,  however  inconsistent.  It  refuses  to 
think,  to  make  distinctions,  to  critically  select,  to 
rigorously  concentrate  on  the  best.  It  is  tempted 
to  believe  that  it  can  share  in  all  possible  interests, 
however  distracting  and  inconsistent,  and  still 
keep  hope  high  and  life  significant.  It  fails  to 
recognize  that  there  is  a  paradoxical  demand  made 
upon  the  modern  man  —  the  demand,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  recognize  the  many-sidedness  and  com- 
plexity of  the  interests  of  life ;  and  the  demand, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  see  that  some  of  these 
interests  are  infinitely  more  valuable  than  others, 
and  are,  therefore,  unhesitatingly  to  be  made 
clearly  paramount.  That  is,  a  great  multitude  of 
new  relations  and  of  lesser  values  of  all  kinds  have 
come  within  our  ken ;  but  it  remains  true  that  we 
cannot  enter  equally  into  all,  and  the  very  mul- 
tiplicity and  complexity  of  our  relations  force  upon 
us,  therefore,  a  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  the 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  95 

choice  of  that  particular  self  we  finally  aim  to  be, 
and,  above  all,  the  unhesitating  sacrifice  of  relative 
goods  to  the  absolute  good.  Upon  no  generation 
has  ever  come  so  insistently,  the  demand  for  the 
rigorous  exercise  of  the  principle,  "If  thy  right 
hand  cause  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off  and  cast  it 
from  thee."  This  requires  both  intellectual  and 
moral  insight,  and  intelligent  training  of  the  moral 
and  religious  life. 

3.  Moreover,  in  the  third  place,  the  forced  inter- 
dependence and  the  increasingly  large  and  com- 
plex cooperation  involved  in  these  new  external 
conditions  demand,  in  preeminent  degree,  the 
social  virtues,  —  a  social  conscience,  both  sensitive 
and  enhghtened,  both  "noble  and  alive,"  both 
with  ideals  of  the  highest  order  and  with  knowl- 
edge and  skill  to  apply  them  to  actual  present 
needs,  —  a  conscience  that  shall  everywhere  work 
toward  "a  definition  of  man,"  to  use  Nash's 
language,  "that  should  take  in  the  downmost 
man."  Only  such  a  conscience  can  cope  with  the 
complicated  problems  of  ill-distributed  wealth,  of 
joyless  labor,  of  the  love  of  luxury,  and  of  conflict- 
ing ideals.  We  cannot  live  any  longer  isolated 
lives,  whether  as  individuals,  as  classes,  or  as 
nations.     Association  of  some  sort  is  forced  upon 


g6        THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

US.  Some  sharing  in  one  another's  lives  we  must 
have.  What  sort  of  spirit  is  to  inform  that  asso- 
ciation or  that  sharing?  Every  consideration 
calls  to-day,  as  never  before,  for  an  earnest  culti- 
vation of  the  social  virtues. 

4.  And,  once  more,  these  new  external  condi- 
tions especially  mean  that  the  coming  years  must 
grapple  with  race  prejudice,  as  no  generation  has 
ever  grappled  before.  We  have  seen  how  this 
problem  is  thrust  upon  us  from  every  angle  in  the 
present  world  situation.  Scarcely  any  nation  is 
without  its  special  racial  perplexities.  In  the 
language  of  the  editor  of  The  World's  Work,  *'the 
great  field  for  humanitarianism  in  the  future  — 
for  that  matter,  the  one  great  direction  of  true 
civilization  —  is  not  the  field  of  mere  religious 
propaganda,  but  the  adjustment  of  race  differences. 
The  task  is  to  find  honorable  and  peaceful  ways 
of  lessening  the  dislike  that  most  races  of  men 
have  for  other  races  —  to  find  ways  of  living  and 
working  together  in  a  world  over  which  no  one 
race  can  rule  in  our  stage  of  civilization,  now  long 
past  the  tribal  organization.  And  this  must  be 
done  without  causing  national  decay."  But  such 
adjustment  of  race  differences  requires,  in  rare 
degree,    a    sympathetic,    open-minded   spirit,    one 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  97 

that  needs,  in  turn,  the  support  of  the  reh'gious 
conviction  of  the  inestimable  value  of  every  human 
soul. 

5.  Finally,  as  the  great  crises  of  the  history  of 
the  race  have  always  demanded  unselfish  leader- 
ship, so,  pecuHarly,  must  this  culminating  period 
require  intelligent,  far-sighted,  patient,  and  reverent 
unselfish  leadership.  No  great  steps  have  ever 
been  taken  by  the  race  without  much  sacrifice  on 
the  part  of  individuals ;  and  the  overwhelming 
problems  of  our  own  time  are  certainly  not  other- 
wise to  be  solved.  But  such  unselfish  leadership, 
if  it  is  to  prove  effective,  must  be  backed  by  a 
great  moral  reinvigoration  of  the  life  of  the  people 
in  each  nation. 

These,  then,  are  the  inevitable  demands  of  the 
new  external  conditions:  exceptional  self-control 
and  commanding  ideals ;  thoughtful  discrimination 
among  the  many  values  of  our  civilization,  —  and 
a  consequent  true  simplicity  of  life;  a  social  con- 
science, both  sensitive  and  enlightened,  including 
particularly  the  conquest  of  race  prejudice,  and 
culminating  in  the  reinvigoration  of  the  whole 
moral  life  of  the  people,  under  unselfish  leadership. 
This  is  the  task  set  our  civilization  —  the  task 
confronting  our  educational  and  religious  forces. 


98        THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Can  any  man  doubt  its  demand  for  vigorous  moral 
and  religious  training?  Are  we  at  all  awake  to 
the  gravity  and  extent  of  our  educational  task? 
In  any  case,  definitely  to  know  our  task  is  the 
first  step  toward  its  intelligent  accomplishment. 

IV 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT 

In  facing  the  demands  thus  made  by  the  new 
external  conditions  of  the  world,  we  may  well 
remind  ourselves,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  elements 
of  encouragement,  involved  in  these  same  condi- 
tions. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  the  mere  sight  of  enormous 
wealth,  wisely  directed,  brings  recognition  of  the 
possibility  of  great  achievements  for  the  common 
good,  not  only  through  the  wealth  of  a  few  indi- 
viduals, but  still  more  through  the  far  greater 
wealth  of  the  whole  community.  It  will  be  almost 
second  nature  for  the  man  of  the  coming  genera- 
tion, probably,  though  he  may  not  count  himself 
Socialist  at  all,  to  accept  essentially  Mr.  Wells's 
definition  of  his  own  socialism,  as  something  which 
"holds  persistently  to  the  idea  of  men  increasingly 
working  in  agreement,  doing  things  that  are  sane 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  99 

to  do,  on  a  basis  of  mutual  helpfulness,  temperance, 
and  toleration."  And  already  we  have  had  oppor- 
tunity to  see  what  great  wealth,  wisely  directed, 
can  do  in  the  way  of  endowed  inquiries,  and  as 
applied  to  national  and  world  problems.  Let  one 
think,  for  example,  of  the  work  already  accom- 
plished and  still  accomplishing  by  the  Peabody 
Education  Fund,  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund,  the 
Southern  Education  Board,  the  General  Educa- 
tion Board;  and  let  one  think  of  the  possibihties 
of  such  great  endowed  inquiries  as  the  Carnegie 
Institution  of  Washington,  the  Carnegie  Founda- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute  for  Medical  Research,  and  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation.  Besides  direct  assistance 
to  education,  these  agencies,  in  the  first  place,  are 
making  possible  extensive  and  advanced  research 
that  must  ultimately  mean  much  for  the  physical 
and  intellectual  progress  of  the  race.  They  are, 
also,  throwing  a  searching  light  upon  institutions 
and  social  conditions  that  must  finally  bring 
great  gains  in  efficiency  in  our  educational  and 
civic  institutions,  and  help  to  the  correction  of 
some  of  those  very  economic  abuses  of  the  work- 
ing classes  by  which  great  fortunes  have  profited. 
And,  apparently,  we  are  only  at  the  beginning  of 


TOO     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

such  possible  achievements.  It  can  hardly  fail  to 
be  true  that,  in  greatly  increased  degree,  the 
imagination  of  men  of  immense  fortunes,  if  these 
are  to  continue,  as  well  as  of  cities,  states,  and 
nations,  should  be  fired  by  the  possibiUty  of  affect- 
ing for  good  the  Ufe  of  a  vast  population,  or  of  an 
entire  nation,  and  of  even  belting  the  world  with 
institutions  that  shall  affect  the  educational,  social, 
and  reUgious  welfare  of  many  nations. 

It  is  true  that  the  very  hugeness  of  the  fortunes 
—  quite  in  excess  of  service  rendered  —  which 
make  possible  these  extraordinary  endowments, 
in  the  face  of  desperate  need  in  the  case  of  many 
other  individuals,  itself  reflects  the  "crudity  and 
even  barbarism"  of  present  economic  conditions. 
It  is  true  that  such  colossal  endowments  carry 
immense  power,  and  the  possibiUty  of  grave  abuse 
of  that  power  —  an  abuse  that  might  conceivably 
justify  the  state  in  sweeping  them  aside  entirely. 
It  is  true  that  the  attitude  of  a  self-respecting 
people  toward  gigantic  private  charities,  even 
when  no  question  is  raised  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
fortunes,  can  hardly  help  being  different  from  that 
toward  its  own  similar  achievements  through  the 
state.  It  is  true  that  great  gifts  even  to  the 
public,  bestowed  outright  by  private  benevolence 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  lOI 

without  thought  or  discussion  or  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  people,  cannot  bring  with  them  that 
inner  growth  and  preparedness  for  their  use  and 
appreciation  that  are  necessary  if  such  gifts  are  to 
render  their  fullest  service.  It  is  true  that,  in 
large  measure,  each  generation  needs  probably  to 
face  its  own  problems  for  itself,  in  its  own  way 
and  with  its  own  resources.  It  is  true,  probably, 
that  the  known  deteriorating  effect  of  charity  upon 
the  individual  can  hardly  be  wholly  avoided  in 
the  long  run,  in  the  case  even  of  the  pubhc.^  It 
is  true,  doubtless,  that  this  all  points  to  the  need 
of  such  increasing  pubHc  enlightenment  and 
broadening  of  purpose  as  shall  insure,  in  the  first 
place,  that  a  few  individuals  are  not  enormously 
enriched  at  the  expense  of  the  nation  as  a  whole; 
and  as  shall,  in  enlarging  degree,  lay  upon  the 
nation  itself  and  upon  cooperating  groups  of  many 
individuals,  the  fulfillment  of  all  the  greater  plans 
for  human  betterment. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  nothing  better  in  human 
life  than  thoughtful  cooperative  effort  for  the  wel- 
fare of  men.  And  these  great  charitable,  edu- 
cational, and  research  foundations,  at  least,  point 
the  way  to  still  greater  possible  achievements  for 

^  Cf.  Kidd,  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  pp.  434,  435. 


I02      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

men,  and  stir  the  imagination  anew  to  the  concep- 
tion of  goals  worthy  of  the  brotherhood  of  men. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  the  very  bigness  of  the  tasks 
laid  upon  men,  under  the  new  external  conditions 
of  the  modern  world,  itself  brings  great  compensa- 
tions. First  of  all,  it  holds  for  men  and  for  nations, 
as  for  boys,  that  large  and  significant  work  tends 
to  drive  out  many  of  the  lower  aims  and  habits. 

"  Gettin'  clear  o'  dirtiness,  gettin'  done  with  mess, 
Gettin'  shut  o'  doin'  things  rather-more-or-less." 

These  larger  tasks  have  tended  to  require  a 
greater  efficiency  in  the  entire  national  hfe,  and 
to  replace  stagnant  content  and  petty  aspirations 
with  worthier  goals.  The  big  task,  too,  develops 
capacity.  Men  grow  in  the  accomplishment  of 
these  immense  tasks,  and  win  in  the  process  a 
power  of  which  they  had  not  thought  themselves 
capable.  A  larger  number  of  men,  too,  are  steadily 
brought  out  by  these  huge  modern  enterprises. 
For  it  is  true  of  each  of  them,  as  of  KipHng's  color 
sergeant :  — 

"  'e  works  'em,  works  'em,  works  'em  till  'e  feels 
'em  take  the  bit." 

One  feels  that  these  huge  material  accomplish- 
ments may  prove  a   training  school  for   the  far 


OF    PRESENT   EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  IO3 

greater  spiritual  achievements  to  which  the  race 
is  called.  Moreover,  the  magnitude  of  the  tasks, 
economic,  industrial,  political,  international,  which 
are  set  our  time,  tends  to  stir  enthusiasm  for  still 
greater  possible  goals.  Think,  for  example,  of  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's  plan  for  conserving  the  resources 
of  the  entire  earth  !  One  may  be  pardoned  for 
doubting  whether  there  was  a  man  of  the  last 
generation  with  imagination  enough  even  to  set 
the  problem.  And  men  are  cherishing  to-day 
economic,  social,  and  missionary  ambitions,  that 
quite  match  even  so  vast  a  material  goal  as  the 
conservation  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth. 
Once  more,  even  the  poorest  attempt  to  work 
toward  great  goals  like  these  has  something  of  the 
inevitable  value  of  the  laboratory  method  of  think- 
ing. Men  are  cooperating  in  these  enterprises,  on 
a  prodigious  scale.  They  can  and  will  work 
together.  Many  of  the  tasks  accomplished,  too, 
are  seen  to  be  of  decided  value  to  the  race.  And 
men  have  found  a  satisfaction  in  this  working 
together  toward  significant  goals,  that  inevitably 
predisposes  them  toward  even  more  significant 
cooperative  undertakings.  That  is,  in  the  very 
process  of  accomplishing  these  modern  tasks,  men 
are  making  proof  of  the  possibility,  the  value,  and 


I04     THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the   joy   of    great   cooperative    enterprises.     This 
holds  much  of  promise  for  the  future  of  the  race. 

3.  The  third  encouragement  in  present  external 
conditions  is  to  be  found  in  the  growing  scientific 
study  of  human  conditions,  and  in  the  increasing 
application  of  science  for  the  betterment  of  human 
life.  Such  applications  of  science  must  keep  pace 
with  the  advancing  power  over  nature's  forces,  and 
with  every  gain  in  insight  into  the  conditions  for 
the  cure  of  social  maladjustments  of  any  kind. 
This  whole  movement  has  naturally  made  possible 
a  new  "physical  conscience"  for  the  individual,  a 
new  enthusiasm  for  sanitary  achievement  and  for 
preventive  medicine,  and  a  rational  hope  for 
similar  achievement  in  the  intellectual,  social,  and 
moral  development  of  the  race.  The  very  stand- 
point of  modern  science  makes  it  impossible  for 
our  generation  to  doubt  that  immense  improve- 
ment is  still  open  to  the  race  through  the  increas- 
ing discernment  of  the  laws  of  life,  and  through 
steady  fulfillment  of  the  involved  conditions. 
The  optimism  of  the  day,  certainly,  need  not  be 
blind. 

4.  Moreover,  these  external  conditions,  as  has 
been  already  seen,  force  upon  men  a  certain  degree 
of  cooperation  as  by  a  kind  of  mechanical  pressure. 


OF    PRESENT    EXTERNAL    CONDITIONS  IO5 

It  is  not  only  in  the  colossal  enterprises  of  our 
time  that  this  is  shown.  The  far  finer  division  of 
labor  and  the  closer  connections  of  men  at  every 
point  necessitate  interdependence  and  cooperation 
for  all,  even  when  men  resent  them.  They  must 
associate  ;  they  must  work  together.  Now,  under 
this  forced  cooperation,  men  are  more  and  more 
learning  to  adjust  themselves.  They  must  so  ad- 
just themselves,  and  they  find  that  they  can.  In- 
creasing experience  of  this  forced  interdependence, 
too,  is  helping  men  to  see  the  value  of  the  coopera- 
tion involved,  and,  rather  to  their  own  surprise, 
they  find  themselves  gladly  willing  to  take  this 
cooperation  on  and  even  to  enlarge  it  voluntarily. 
The  unavoidable  conditions  of  the  time,  at  this 
point,  are  themselves  tending  to  develop  the  coop- 
erative qualities  required. 

5.  Another  encouragement  to  be  found  in  the 
external  conditions  of  the  present  is  that  possi- 
hility  of  greater  leisure  for  the  higher  ends  of  life 
that  has  been  already  mentioned.  It  is  true,  as 
we  have  seen,  that  the  wise  use  of  leisure  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  been  widely  achieved  in 
modern  civilization.  But  even  the  possibility  of 
leisure  has  large  significance  for  the  growth  and 
happiness  of  the  individual,  and  for  the  advance- 


Io6     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ment  of  the  entire  life  of  the  race.  It  is  hopeless 
to  expect  to  make  either  great  men  or  a  great 
nation  without  opportunity  for  thought,  for  growth, 
for  appreciation  of  life's  values,  for  cultivation  of 
imagination  and  aspiration,  and  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  some  genuine  spiritual  unity  in  hfe.  The 
very  complexity  of  our  civilization  makes  the  need 
only  more  urgent  at  every  one  of  these  points. 
We  need  leisure,  as  no  preceding  generation  ever 
needed  it ;  and  modern  conditions  evidently  have 
the  power  to  make  that  larger  leisure  generally 
possible.  But  the  gift  of  leisure  must  be  accom- 
panied with  training  for  its  wise  use.  Universal 
education,  the  night  schools,  and  the  summer 
school  sessions,  the  public  libraries,  the  public 
press,  the  enlarging  uses  of  public  school  proper- 
ties, the  better  theaters  and  concerts,  the  grow- 
ing possibilities  of  the  moving-picture,  the  social 
settlements,  the  playground  movements,  the 
far-sighted  park  policies  of  some  of  our  great 
cities,  and  the  larger  religious  as  well  as  social 
activities  of  the  churches,  are  all  helping  at  this 
vital  point  —  in  making  possible  a  valuable  and 
enjoyable  use  of  leisure.  But  we  are  still  far  from 
the  ideal  for  the  people  generally. 

6.  A  further  encouragement,  reflecting  and  grow- 


OF   PRESENT   EXTERNAL   CONDITIONS  107 

ing  out  of  the  external  conditions  of  the  new 
world  of  our  time,  is  the  fact  of  the  enormous  edu- 
cational influence  of  the  daily  press  and  of  our  great 
popular  weeklies  and  magazines,  with  all  their 
limitations.  First  of  all,  through  the  medium  of 
the  press,  a  rapidly  increasing  multitude  of  men 
are  introduced  into  a  wide  circle  of  interests.  In 
this  very  way  a  daily  education  of  no  mean  dimen- 
sions is  steadily  going  forward.  For  such  greater 
breadth  of  interest,  where  it  is  allowed  to  have 
anything  like  its  natural  weight,  can  hardly  fail 
gradually  to  enrich  and  enlarge  the  life  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  society  of  which  he  forms  a 
part.  If  one  thinks,  for  example,  to  how  large  an 
extent  his  growth,  his  power  of  understanding  and 
enjoyment,  the  sanity  of  his  judgments,  and  his 
influence  over  others,  all  depend  on  breadth  of 
interest,  he  cannot  fail  to  see  how  large  an  edu- 
cational factor  the  press  is  bound  here  to  be.  It 
is  difficult  to  overestimate  the  educational  in- 
fluence of  some  of  our  greater  Weeklies  and  Month- 
lies, also,  in  the  development  of  social,  political, 
and  national  ideals.  Many  of  these  problems  are 
discussed  with  a  breadth  and  insight  and  sugges- 
tiveness  that  cannot  help  counting  in  the  thought 
and  standards  of  multitudes  of  readers.     One  clear- 


Io8     THE    MOR.\L   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

sighted  observer  of  American  national  life  has  even 
suggested  that  it  might  be  doubted  whether  there 
were  any  stronger  moral  influence  at  present  at 
work  in  America  than  that  of  certain  of  our  great 
magazines.  It  is,  of  course,  chiefly  through  the 
press  that  international  criticism,  too,  has  its 
opportunity  for  influence,  and  the  contribution  to 
the  world's  progress  thus  made  by  journalism  is 
notable  and  indispensable. 

But  the  largest  service  of  the  press  is  to  be 
found,  perhaps,  after  all,  in  its  function  as  a  gatherer 
of  news.  For  this  makes  facts,  interpretations,  and 
trends  of  thought  promptly  felt  throughout  the 
world,  and  so  secures  an  almost  immediate  con- 
centration of  attention,  on  the  part  of  hundreds 
of  thousands,  on  the  same  problems  and  on  the 
same  lines  of  thought.  In  this  regular  service 
journalism  often  brings  great  pains  and  skill  to 
the  interpretation  of  significant  social,  national, 
and  poHtical  movements.  How  much  this  means 
for  the  progress  of  the  race  can  be  seen  by  com- 
parison with  the  progress  of  science.  For  just  as 
science  has  gained  immensely,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Roentgen  rays,  by  the  possibility  of  the  ex- 
periments of  the  original  discoverer  being  repeated 
and  extended  by  fellow  workers  all  over  the  world ; 


OF  PRESENT  EXTERNAL  CONDITIONS    I09 

SO  the  great  social  and  political  trends  of  the  time, 
through  the  press,  extend  themselves  over  the 
world  with  a  rapidity  inconceivable  to  an  earlier 
generation,  and  in  that  extension  and  in  the  re- 
actions everywhere  provoked,  develop  in  the 
clearness  and  definiteness  and  sweep  of  their  aims. 
The  mere  process  of  widespread  news-telling 
serves  gradually  to  sift  out  what  is  most  valuable 
in  the  movements  of  human  thought  and  action. 

7.  The  greatest  encouragement  to  be  seen  in 
these  new  external  conditions  of  our  time  un- 
doubtedly is  to  be  found  in  the  trend  toward  uni- 
versal education,  with  all  its  immeasurable  possi- 
bilities for  good,  and  in  the  magnificent  ideal  enter- 
prises which  this  generation  is  undertaking.  For 
these  show  unmistakably,  not  only  that  moral  and 
religious  education,  on  a  stupendous  scale,  is 
already  going  on ;  but  also  that  moral  and  religious 
progress  has  taken  place  in  marked  degree,  even 
quite  outside  the  set  channels  of  the  educational 
and  rehgious  forces,  and  has  affected  not  only 
individual  and  national  life,  but  made  itself  felt 
increasingly,  even  in  international  relations.  This 
is  to  be  seen,  particularly,  in  the  rising  moral 
standards  that  are  being  applied  to  individual, 
national,  and  international  life,  and  in  the  general 


no     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

trend  toward  a  rational  ethical  democracy,  toward 
a  social  conscience,  and  toward  universal  peace. 

One  cannot  thus  review  even  the  external  con- 
ditions of  the  new  modern  world  without  a  quicken- 
ing of  the  pulse  and  a  stirring  of  moral  determina- 
tion. We  live  in  a  peculiarly  challenging  age. 
Its  great  trends  disclose  themselves  to  thoughtful 
study  unmistakably.  Its  dangers  and  problems 
are  threatening;  but  its  resources  also  are  im- 
mense, and  the  elements  of  encouragement  deeply 
significant.  The  educational  and  religious  forces 
are  able  to  gird  themselves  for  a  difficult  but 
definite  and  hopeful  task.  They  can  see  clearly 
what  the  quahties  of  the  modern  man  must  be, 
and  train  straightly  toward  those  qualities.  In- 
telligent and  unselfish  cooperation  for  the  highest 
ends  are  now  possible  to  men,  as  never  before  in 
the  history  of  the  race. 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  the 
New  Inner  World  of  Thought  I:  The 
Factors  of  the  New  Inner  World  and  their 
Individual  Challenge 

As  one  attempts  to  forecast  the  moral  and 
religious  future  of  the  world,  he  must  take  account, 
not  only  of  the  demand  of  the  new  external  con- 
ditions, but  not  less  of  the  demand  of  the  new 
inner  world  of  the  mind. 

The  increase  in  knowledge  in  the  last  hundred 
years  may  be  fitly  compared  with  the  enormous 
increase  of  material  wealth.  John  Fiske's  state- 
ment of  the  intellectual  differences  of  which  we 
must  take  account  is  even  more  true  now  than 
when  he  wrote  it:  "In  their  mental  habits,  in 
their  methods  of  inquiry,  and  in  the  data  at  their 
command,  the  men  of  the  present  day  who  have 
fully  kept  pace  with  the  scientific  movement  are 
separated  from  the  men  whose  education  ended 
in  1830  by  an  immeasurably  wider  gulf  than  has 


112      THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

ever  before  divided  one  progressive  generation  of 
men  from  their  predecessors."  In  fact  the  new 
external  world  with  which  we  have  been  dealing 
has  grown  chiefly  out  of  this  new  inner  world  of 
thought. 

The  significance  of  this  great  inner  movement 
of  thought  is  only  justly  reflected  in  these  words 
of  Kidd:  "The  precursor  of  every  great  period  of 
social  and  political  reconstruction  has  invariably 
been,  as  John  Stuart  Mill  has  pointed  out,  'a. 
great  change  in  the  opinions  and  modes  of  think- 
ing of  society.'  There  is  no  era  in  Western  history 
which  can  offer  any  parallel  in  this  respect  to  the 
period  in  which  we  are  living.  There  is  no  depart- 
ment of  knowledge  dealing  with  man  in  society, 
however  authoritative  its  traditions,  however  ex- 
clusive and  self-contained  its  position,  which  is 
not  separated  now  by  an  immense  interval  from 
its  standpoint  fifty  years  ago.  The  modern  doc- 
trine of  evolution  is  only  the  last  of  a  long  chain  of 
sequences.  But  the  changes  which  it  has  already 
effected  in  the  tendencies  of  the  deeper  processes 
of  thought  altogether  exceed  in  import  any  pre- 
viously experienced.  Even  its  general  results 
have  a  significance  which  immediately  arrests  the 
attention  of  the  thoughtful  observer.     The  final 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       II3 

aspect  of  authority  and  completeness  which  it  has 
given  to  the  work  accompHshed  by  a  set  of  revolu- 
tionary tendencies  in  thought,  which  for  four 
centuries  have  struggled  with  the  most  conserva- 
tive elements  in  our  civilization,  has  so  profoundly 
influenced  the  average  mind,  that  the  culminating 
effect  of  the  revolution  has  been  felt  almost  as  if 
the  meaning  of  the  whole  movement  had  been 
compressed  into  the  lifetime  of  a  single  genera- 
tion. The  Western  intellect  has,  as  it  were, 
passed  at  last  through  the  initiatory  phase  of 
what  Hegel  called  the  terrible  discipline  of  self- 
knowledge.  The  tendencies  which  John  Addington 
Symonds  beheld  slowly  transforming  our  civiliza- 
tion —  the  audacious  speculation,  the  bold  ex- 
planatory studies,  the  sound  methods  of  criticism, 
the  free  range  of  the  intellect  over  every  field  of 
knowledge  —  have  all  but  accompHshed  the  first 
stage  of  their  work."  ^ 

As  contributing  to  this  new  world  of  the  inner 
life  must  be  especially  recognized  the  influence  of 
natural  science  and  its  theory  of  evolution,  the 
coming  in  of  the  historical  spirit,  the  rise  of  the 
new  psychology,  of  the  new  science  of  sociology 
and  of  comparative  rehgion,  and  of  the  resulting 

^  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  pp.  1-3. 


114     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

philosophical  and  theological  trends  of  the  time. 
How  new  these  factors  in  our  modern  intellectual 
life  are,  it  is  difficult  to  realize.  But  evolution,  in 
its  present  influential  form,  dates  from  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species,  issued  in  1859.  The  historical 
spirit  only  came  in  with  the  last  century,  for  it 
practically  begins  with  Herder.  The  first  psy- 
chological laboratory  in  the  world  was  opened  in 
1879.  Sociology  is  hardly  older  than  the  earlier 
writings  of  Herbert  Spencer.  And  comparative 
religion  belongs  chiefly  to  the  last  fifty  years.  All 
of  these  bring  new  data  and  new  suggestions  of 
method  for  the  understanding  of  the  world,  of 
men,  and  of  God,  and,  therefore,  have  affected 
both  the  philosophical  and  the  theological  trend 
of  the  times,  as  well  as  changed  for  all  men  the 
face  of  the  modern  world  of  thought.  Let  us  look, 
then,  at  the  practical  issue  of  these  great  lines  of 
thought,  as  recorded  in  the  conditions  of  the  present 
day. 

I 

NATURAL   SCIENCE   AND  EVOLUTION 

The  prevalence  of  the  scientific  spirit,  first  of 
all,  must  mean  increasingly  the  detemiination 
everywhere  open-mindedly  to    face  the  facts,   to 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       II5 

discern   the  laws   involved   in   the   facts,    and   to 
apply  these  laws  to  present  conditions. 

I.  The  scientific  method  of  control.  As  we  re- 
peatedly saw  in  the  discussion  of  the  external  con- 
ditions of  our  time,  it  is  exactly  this  scientific 
point  of  view  and  method  that  enable  the  modern 
man  to  face  with  courage  and  hope  the  complex 
problems  of  the  age.  Here  are  problems  of  physi- 
cal degeneracy  and  disease ;  financial,  commercial, 
and  industrial  problems;  political  problems,  na- 
tional and  international ;  problems  of  social 
maladjustment ;  educational,  moral,  and  religious 
problems.  The  modern  man,  by  virtue  of  the 
scientific  spirit,  can  attack  them  all  with  hope  of 
victory.  He  knows  that  he  need  not  blindly 
strike  about  him  in  the  dark.  He  can  know  the 
definite  line  of  procedure  to  be  followed.  He  is 
sure  that  an  open-minded,  persistent  study,  and 
methodical  investigation  through  experiment,  of 
even  the  most  complex  problem,  will  finally  dis- 
close the  great  trends  and  the  laws  involved.  He 
is  sure  that  these  discerned  laws  will  point  the 
way  to  certain  definite  conditions,  and  that  if 
these  conditions  are  honestly  and  steadily  met, 
control  can  be  gained  of  the  forces  at  work  in  the 
complex  situation  he  is  seeking  to  subdue.     Some 


Il6     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

problems  yield  their  secret  much  more  quickly 
than  others ;  but  of  even  the  most  stubborn  the 
scientific  spirit  does  not  despair.  Mastery  of  all 
forces  through  discernment  of  their  laws  —  this  is 
the  practical  goal  of  applied  science.  Just  here  is 
the  root  of  the  sounder  optimism  of  our  time. 

The  mere  statement  of  what  the  scientific  spirit 
means  suggests,  at  once,  also,  its  moral  and  religious 
significance,  and  the  contribution  which  it  has, 
therefore,  directly  to  make,  at  this  point,  to  the 
social  progress  of  the  race.  And  this  needs  em- 
phasis, for  it  has  been  so  often  assumed  that  the 
scientific  spirit  is  somehow  necessarily  antagonistic 
to  the  ideal  spirit. 

2.  The  moral  significance  of  the  scientific  spirit. 
As  to  its  moral  significance,  where  the  scientific 
spirit  is  genuinely  taken  on,  it  is  plain  that  it 
involves  a  certain  inevitable  moral  attitude,  and  this, 
of  itself,  is  an  element  of  great  hope  in  that  present- 
day  civilization  which  is  so  largely  the  product  of 
modern  science.  The  scientist  must  practice  a 
certain  fundamental  morafity  —  the  morality  of 
humble,  open-minded  wilHngness  to  face  the  facts 
exactly  as  they  are.  To  fail  in  this  attitude  is 
indubitably  to  fail  of  his  goal.  The  achievements 
of  science  become,  thus,  a  further  illustration  of 


OF  THE  NEW  INNER  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT   II7 

Christ's  contention  of  the  omnipotence  of  that 
humble  open-mindedness,  which  he  made  the 
quahty  of  the  first  Beatitude  and  the  door  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as  it  is  the  door  to  the  king- 
dom of  science.  It  is  true  that  the  cuhivation  of 
this  spirit  in  the  study  of  physical  phenomena, 
unhappily,  does  not  infallibly  insure  the  same 
spirit  in  relation  to  other  problems  and  to  persons. 
But  this  only  means  that  the  scientist  may  fail 
in  the  true  scientific  spirit,  when  he  makes  incur- 
sions into  unfamiliar  fields.  The  plain  demand 
of  the  scientific  spirit  has  not  ceased,  though  he 
has  proved  unfaithful  to  it.  This  is  only  to  say 
that  the  genuine  scientific  spirit  requires  a  relent- 
less, honest  integrity  in  dealing  with  the  facts,  — 
a  spirit  that  is  relentless  through  and  through, 
and  that  allows  no  warping  of  the  facts  to  fit  desire 
or  theory  or  prepossession.  The  scientific  spirit, 
thus,  when  given  its  way,  brings  a  great  moral 
training  in  radical  conscientiousness,  and  works 
directly  in  fine  with  Christ's  own  repeated  and 
insistent  demand  for  utter  inner  integrity  of  life. 
"Just  as  the  scientist's  one  desire  is  to  get  at  the 
exact  facts,  and  just  as  he  has  the  wholesome 
sense  that  any  furthering  of  his  pet  theory  in  the 
end  could  be  of  no  avail  against  the  facts ;    so  the 


Il8     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

disciple  of  the  righteous  life,  in  the  thought  of 
Jesus,  has  one  sole  desire  —  to  know  the  truth,  to 
know  and  do  the  will  of  God,  without  prejudice, 
without  willfulness,  with  no  trace  of  falseness. 
All  this  —  prejudice,  willfulness,  falseness  —  would 
only  hinder  the  disciple's  one  great  end."  ^ 

It  should  mean  much  for  the  moral  advance  of 
men,  that  the  full  force  of  this  most  powerful  move- 
ment of  our  time  should,  thus,  both  continually  ex- 
emplify and  reenforce  the  Christian  teaching.  For 
this  aspect  of  the  scientific  spirit  has  tended  to 
lead  men  to  a  veritable  passion  for  reality,  to  "the 
spirit  of  austere  devotion  to  the  truth,"  that  is  an 
essential  characteristic  of  the  man  of  high  spirit- 
ual endeavor.  This  has  greatly  helped,  also,  to 
thoroughness  of  investigation,  and  so  to  the  dis- 
covery of  truth  in  every  sphere.  And  morals  and 
reHgion,  as  well  as  physical  science,  have  profited 
thereby.  Such  is  the  moral  significance  of  natural 
science. 

3.  The  religious  significance  of  the  scientific  spirit. 
The  religious  significance  of  natural  science  is 
hardly  less.  The  modern  world  really  begins  with 
modern  science;  and  modern  science  involved,  as 
others  have  pointed  out,  not  only  the  standpoint 
1  King,  The  Ethics  of  Jesus,  p.  84. 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT      II9 

of  experience  and  observation,  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  mediaeval  a  priori  treatment  of  nature, 
but,  particularly,  the  adoption  of  the  method  of 
experiment.  For  scientific  experiment  meant  the 
deliberate  methodical  investigation  of  nature  to 
discover  its  laws  and  their  involved  conditions. 
It  pointed  the  way,  thus,  through  the  fulfillment 
of  those  conditions,  to  the  control  of  forces,  and 
to  the  achievement  of  ends  not  otherwise  attain- 
able. This,  alone,  has  made  possible  that  pro- 
gressive conquest  of  nature  pecuUarly  characteris- 
tic of  our  time. 

Now  for  such  use  of  the  experimental  method, 
and  for  its  resulting  accomplishment,  it  should  be 
carefully  noted,  natural  science  required  absolute 
freedom  of  investigation.  How  could  it  get  it  in 
the  conditions  of  the  mediaeval  period  ?  There 
were  natural  and  powerful  reUgious  motives,  and 
aggressive  and  stupendous  religious  forces,  that 
tended  to  make  such  freedom  of  investigation 
utterly  impossible.  Men  felt  obliged  to  admit  that 
spiritual  interests  were  the  supreme  interests. 
These  supreme  spiritual  interests  seemed  to  them 
to  carry  with  them  the  authoritative  organization 
of  the  Church  and  its  equally  authoritative  dog- 
matic  answers   to   questions   in   every   sphere   of 


I20     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

human  thought.  None  of  these  questions,  there- 
fore, could  be  open  to  really  free  investigation. 
On  the  one  hand,  men  could  not  help  instinctively 
feeling  the  inevitableness  and  full  justification  of 
free  investigation ;  even  half  unconsciously  there 
came  a  sense  of  self-stultification  in  denying  its 
right ;  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  religion  seemed 
definitely  to  forbid.  The  contribution  of  natural 
science,  here,  consisted  in  forcing  upon  the  con- 
sciousness of  men  the  sense  of  the  inevitableness  of 
free  investigation.  But  it  brought  the  feeling,  at 
the  same  time,  of  an  inner  insoluble  antinomy. 
The  difficulty  was  felt  to  be  a  religious  one;  its 
satisfactory  solution,  also,  must  therefore  be 
religious.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  principle  of 
freedom  of  investigation  fought  its  way  to  recog- 
nition through  the  Protestant  religious  principle 
of  freedom  of  conscience,  —  the  freedom  to  follow 
God-given  inner  ideals  and  the  tasks  the  mind  so 
set  itself.  Conscience  had  to  be  regarded  as  in 
some  true  sense  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul. 
Science's  freedom  of  investigation  thus  rooted  — 
we  may  never  forget  —  in  the  religious  principle 
of  freedom  of  conscience,  and  had  to  be  long 
defended  thereby,  against  the  aggressions  of  the 
Church.     It  could  only  be  finally  secured  against 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       121 

such  aggression,  in  the  name  of  religion,  by  ac- 
quiring a  religions  basis  in  this  principle  of 
freedom  of  conscience,  as  the  divine  right  and 
obligation  of  the  individual.  In  one's  ultimate 
philosophical  thinking,  then,  absolute  freedom  of 
investigation  can  be  defended  only  if  its  ideal  and 
task  be  regarded  as  God-given,  —  the  revelation  of 
the  will  of  God  in  the  constitution  of  man.  Science's 
freedom  of  investigation,  that  is,  as  a  finally  de- 
fensible ideal,  roots  in  the  principle  —  held  as  a 
religious  conviction  —  of  reverence  for  one's  own 
inner  personality. 

We  can  be  sure,  therefore,  that  science's  free- 
dom of  investigation,  for  which,  historically,  it 
had  to  fight  against  the  mediaeval  church,  is  just 
as  truly  a  moral  and  religious  need  as  a  scientific 
and  material  need.  In  fact,  it  should  be  em- 
phatically said  that,  wherever  the  Protestant 
church  has  opposed  freedom  of  investigation  in 
any  sphere,  it  has  been  disloyal  to  its  own  funda- 
mental principle  of  freedom  of  conscience  and 
shown  doubt  of  the  power  and  value  of  the  truth. 
For  science,  too,  as  Miinsterberg  suggests,  is  a 
"child  of  duties,"  —  an  ideal  task  which  God  sets 
to  the  spirit  of  man.  Wherever,  then,  we  are  not 
keeping  the  open  mind,   wherever  we  close  the 


122     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

door  upon  inquiry,  wherever  we  shun  the  dark 
corners  in  our  thinking,  wherever  we  attempt 
coercion  of  the  thought  of  others,  there  we  fail, 
not  intellectually  alone,  but  morally  and  religiously. 
We  make  impossible  that  inner  harmony  of  our 
being,  that  religion,  above  all,  should  bring. 

This  absolute  freedom  of  conscience  means, 
also,  as  Sabatier  has  pointed  out,  that  there  can 
be,  ultimately,  no  religion  of  mere  authority.  This 
is  not  at  all  to  deny  that  there  is  a  necessary 
authoritative  stage  in  all  training  of  every  kind. 
But  the  authoritative  stage  is  transitional  solely. 
It  justifies  itself  by  making  itself  finally  dispen- 
sable, not  indispensable.  A  spiritual  life  that  has 
no  inner  spring  is  misnamed  spiritual  —  it  is  a 
product  of  external  forces.  If  this  authoritative 
stage  is  not  transitional,  then  it  defeats  its  only 
legitimate  end.  For  the  end  of  all  direction  and 
authority  in  morals  and  religion  is  to  bring  the 
individual  to  the  point  where  he  prescribes  for 
himself  that  which  has  hitherto  been  prescribed 
for  him.  The  true  moral  or  religious  attitude  is 
necessarily  self -legislative ;  else  it  is  not  really 
moral  or  reHgious  at  all.  It  is  quite  true  that 
probably  the  great  majority  of  the  adherents  of 
the  religions  of  the  race  still  have  no  such  concep- 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       1 23 

tion.  But  it  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  subtle  argu- 
ment. The  trend  is  inevitable.  The  logic,  not  of 
a  single  thinker,  but  of  the  whole  trend  of  modern 
civilization,  underlies  the  conviction  that  ulti- 
mately religion  cannot  be  a  matter  of  authority.' 
Even  the  Protestant  church,  whose  basic  principle 
is  only  developed  here  to  its  necessary  conse- 
quences, is  reluctant  to  grant  this  contention. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  certainly  assumes  the  prin- 
ciple, but  the  avowed  disciples  of  Jesus  have  sel- 
dom perceived  it.  In  the  common  insistence  that 
religion  is  a  matter  of  authority,  the  Protestant 
Christian,  therefore,  doubly  denies  his  own  reason 
for  being.  He  is  both  un-Protestant  and  un- 
christian. For  it  is  vain  to  talk  of  any  freedom 
of  conscience  that  is  not  absolute,  that  does  not 
mean  that  the  individual  not  only  may  but  must 
follow  conscience,  —  the  inner  ideal,  and  must, 
therefore,  take  on  those  tasks  that  are  inwardly 
commanded.  To  deny  this  is  to  deny  that  God 
can  be  thought  of  as  the  real  creator  of  man  at 
all,  and  as,  therefore,  manifesting  his  will  in  man's 
constitution. 

Nor  is  this  to  be  mistaken  for  mere  subjectivism. 
The  principle  of  reverence  for  personality  guards 
as  surely  against  an  egoistic  subjectivity  as  against 


124     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

a  smothering  of  individual  initiative  by  outside 
pressure.  For  the  sense  of  the  value  and  sacred- 
ness  of  each  person  recognizes  each  as  a  child  of 
God,  as  possessing  in  himself  a  valuable  reflection 
and  expression  of  the  Divine,  and  so  as  contribut- 
ing unmistakably  to  the  revelation  and  understand- 
ing of  the  will  of  God,  —  of  the  full-orbed  and 
permanent  ideals  of  the  race.  PoHtical  and  social, 
as  well  as  ethical  and  religious  progress,  certainly 
indicate  that  men  are  seeing  with  increasing  clear- 
ness, that  the  honest  individual  reaction  of  even  the 
least  cannot  be  spared.  For  the  reverent  of  per- 
sonality, therefore,  it  must  infallibly  prove  true, 
that  the  ultimate,  inner  vision  of  duty  results  from 
consideration,  not  of  one's  own  single  personality 
alone  but  of  the  manifested  ideal  in  all  personahties. 
It  is  equally  vain  to  dream  that  anything  less 
than  an  inner  spirituahty  can  satisfy  the  ideal  of 
Jesus.  His  emphasis  upon  the  necessity  of  inner 
integrity,  and  therefore  of  the  mental  and  spiritual 
independence  of  the  individual,  is  repeated  and 
insistent.  He  wishes  men  to  follow  him,  not  for 
any  external  reasons,  —  for  loaves  or  for  the  signs 
that  he  works,  —  but  because  of  the  inner  appeal 
to  their  spirits,  of  what  he  is  in  himself.  His 
teaching  constantly  addresses  itself  to  the  reason 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT      1 25 

and  conscience  of  his  hearers.  He  utterly  repudi- 
ates any  other  test.  As  I  have  elsewhere  said, 
"Jesus  knows  no  moral  or  religious  life  that  can 
be  called  genuine  at  all,  that  is  not  the  man's 
own,  —  the  expression  of  his  own  insight  and  his 
own  choice.  He  feels  an  element  of  pretense 
wherever  the  inner  life  takes  on  as  its  own  what 
is  not  really  so.  One  must  see  for  himself,  and  he 
must  choose  for  himself."  ^  Jesus'  own  authority, 
therefore,  is  not  that  of  one  who  commands  from 
without,  but  that  of  one  whose  appeal  is  felt  to 
coincide  with  our  own  highest  ideal.  His  au- 
thority is  like  that  of  a  scientific  expert  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  realm. 

4.  Bringing  a  new  sense  of  reality  and  of  hope 
into  the  ideal  realm.  But  one  has  not  fully  stated 
the  moral  and  religious  significance  of  natural 
science,  until  he  has  further  seen,  that  natural 
science  has  contributed  to  both  morals  and  reli- 
gion the  uplifting,  hope-inspiring  sense  of  a  world 
greatly  enlarged,  singularly  unified,  inevitably 
evolving,  and  always  law-abiding. 

This  brings,  in  the  first  place,  an  added  sense  of 
reality  into  the  ideal  world  of  morals  and  religion, 
through  the  feeling  that  these  ideals  are  steadily 

^  The  Ethics  of  Jesus,  p.  Si. 


126     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

making  themselves  felt  in  the  everyday  world  of 
actuality.  It  brings  also  a  new  sense  of  hope  and 
of  the  possibility  of  intelligent  cooperation  with 
God  in  his  own  mighty  purposes,  and  so  of  the 
possibility  of  the  achievement  of  great  goals.  It 
is  worth  while  to  see  what  these  modern  scientific 
convictions  have  individually  meant  in  the  realm 
of  morals  and  religion. 

We  live  in  a  world  enlarged  for  our  thought 
quite  beyond  the  possibiUty  of  conception  by 
earlier  ages ;  enlarged  in  the  infinite  spaces  of  the 
revelations  of  astronomy ;  enlarged  in  the  mighty 
reaches  of  time,  measured  not  only  by  geological, 
but  by  physical  research ;  enlarged  in  perception 
of  inner,  endless  energy,  microscopic  as  well  as 
telescopic,  and  compelling  our  admission  even  far 
beyond  all  possibihty  of  vision.  A  man  cannot 
help  asking  himself  in  such  a  world,  "Is  thy  God 
adequate  to  this  enlarged  universe?" 

And  we  live  in  a  unified  world ;  unified,  too, 
beyond  all  possible  earlier  conception;  unified  in 
the  thought  of  the  universal  forces  of  gravity  and 
of  magnetism ;  unified  in  the  principle  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy ;  a  world  that  acts  as  one 
world,  as  though  permeated  with  one  will.  It  is 
so  permeated.     For  our  time,  as  for  no  other,  the 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT      1 27 

thought  of  unity  dominates.  The  world  is  one, 
past  our  denial.  Man  is  one,  in  spite  of  his  seem- 
ing duality.  Man  and  the  world  are  akin,  and 
man  is  the  microcosmus  in  a  deeper  sense  than  the 
old  Greek  philosopher  could  guess.  And  man  and 
God,  too,  are  akin;  and  our  key  to  the  under- 
standing of  God  is  to  be  found  within,  not  with- 
out. No  age  so  certainly  as  ours  should  be  able 
to  say  of  man,  with  the  Psalmist,  "Thou  hast 
made  him  but  little  lower  than  God,  and  crownest 
him  with  glory  and  honor."  Is  thy  God  adequate 
to  this  unified  world  ? 

And  whatever  changes  come  in  the  great  con- 
ception of  evolution,  mankind  will  never  escape 
again  from  the  idea  of  an  evolving  world.  Physics, 
biology,  embryology,  psychology,  sociology,  make 
it  impossible  for  us  to  forget  that  man  is,  in  some 
real  sense,  the  goal  of  the  whole  physical  universe, 
containing  within  himself  the  promise  of  endless 
progress.  And  men  have  dared  to  dream  that,  in 
this  evolution,  physical,  individual,  and  social, 
they  could  even  catch  the  trend  of  the  ages,  the 
direction  of  the  mighty  ongoing  of  God's  purposes. 
Is  thy  God  adequate  to  this  evolving  world  ? 

And  once  more,  with  the  emphasis  of  the  whole 
of  modern  science  on  the  conception  of  law,  men 


128     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

look  in  upon  themselves  and  out  upon  the  uni- 
verse with  other  eyes;  for  the  perception  of  law 
means  discernment  of  the  ways  of  the  universe; 
means,  therefore,  insight  into  its  secrets  and  power 
to  use  its  exhaustless  energies.  The  idea  of  law 
brings,  thus,  the  glorious  promise  of  world  mastery 
and  self-mastery  —  hope  hitherto  unimagined.  Is 
thy  God  adequate  to  this  great  world  of  law? 

We  men,  thus,  of  the  modern  time,  who  live  in 
this  enlarged  world,  in  this  unified  world,  in  this 
evolving  world,  in  this  law-abiding  world,  are 
forced  to  enlarge  our  conception  of  God  and  of 
his  will,  if  we  have  not  already  done  so,  to  match 
this  greater  vision  of  the  world  and  of  men;  for 
we  shall  not  long  believe  in  a  God  who  is  not 
greater  than  his  world.  And  when  we  think  of 
the  enlarged  world  of  our  time,  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  make  the  measure  of  the  will  of  God  petty 
projects  of  any  kind  or  order.  When  we  think  of 
the  unified  world  so  necessary  to  our  modern 
thought,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  doubt  that  the 
will  of  God  cannot  be  shut  up  to  small  fragments 
of  life  or  of  the  race,  but  must  be  inclusive  of  all 
goods,  and  consistent  throughout.  When  we  think 
of  the  mighty  evolving  world,  in  the  midst  of  which 
we  see  ourselves  placed,   we  cannot  but  believe 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       1 29 

that  the  will  of  God  is  in  it,  working  out  great 
purposes  that  we  can  at  least  dimly  discern,  and 
in  which,  intelligently  and  triumphantly,  we  may 
share.  And  when  we  think  of  the  will  of  God, 
laid  down  in  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  human 
nature,  we  find  it  no  longer  possible  to  think  of 
him  as  mere  onlooker  in  the  drama  of  life ;  for  he 
is  sharing  in  our  very  life,  and  we  in  his.  For,  in 
another's  words,  "even  the  agony  of  the  world's 
struggle  is  the  very  life  of  God.  Were  he  mere 
spectator,  perhaps  he  too  would  call  life  cruel. 
But,  in  the  unity  of  our  lives  with  his,  our  joy  is 
his  joy,  our  pain  is  his." 

These  convictions,  thus,  of  our  modern  scientific 
age  may  help  us  to  the  largeness  of  the  measure 
of  the  meaning  which  Christ  —  and  Paul  after  him 
—  put  into  this  thought  of  the  will  of  God.  Under 
these  convictions,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  the 
ambitions  of  men  to-day  have  taken  on,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  titanic  quality  that  he  must  be  quite 
blind  who  does  not  see,  —  financial  and  economic 
enterprises,  world-wide  in  their  significance ;  social 
projects  that  concern  not  one  nation  alone,  but  all 
nations ;  missionary  movements  that,  in  their  very 
nature,  cannot  be  carried  out  without  affecting 
the  entire  personal  and  social  life  of  every  race 


130     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

touched  thereby,  and  changing  the  very  face  of 
nature.  Every  profession  is  sharing  in  this  en- 
larged vision  of  positive  achievement.  The  phy- 
sician has  begun  to  dream  of  a  race  physically 
redeemed,  through  the  triumphs  of  preventive, 
not  merely  remedial,  medicine.  The  lawyer  is 
beginning  to  think  he  need  be  no  mere  attorney, 
but  a  servant  of  the  public  weal,  put  in  trust  with 
the  great  heritage  of  law.  We  seem  to  ourselves  to 
be  just  awakening  out  of  sleep,  and  out  of  dull 
lassitude  of  will.  Now  we  see  what  life  means. 
We  live  in  an  infinite  world,  and  in  that  world  we 
have  our  part  to  play.  We  live  in  a  unified  world, 
and  just  on  that  account  we  may  work  effects, 
wide  as  the  universe  of  God.  We  live  in  an 
evolving  world,  the  direction  of  whose  progress  is 
not  wholly  hidden  from  us ;  and  into  the  very 
plans  of  God,  therefore,  it  is  given  us  to  enter. 
We  live  in  a  law-abiding  world,  in  which  God  him- 
self is  immanent;  and  he  works  in  us,  both  to  will 
and  to  work  of  his  own  good  pleasure.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  the  ambitions  of  men  of  the  present 
day,  when  seen  thus  in  the  large,  seem  to  dwarf 
all  previous  aims  of  common  men  ?  We  build 
again,  and  with  eager  hope,  our  heaven-scaling 
tower,  but  now  on  foundations  laid  by  God  him- 


OF    THE    NEW    INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       13I 

self;  and  the  confused  tongues  give  promise  of 
changing  into  a  higher  harmony  in  the  unity  of 
the  will  of  God. 

5.  Bringing  a  new  standard  of  efficiency  into  moral 
and  religious  education.  Moreover,  the  scientific 
spirit  joins  its  influence  with  that  of  economic 
production  to  bring  about  the  application  of  a 
new  standard  of  efficiency  to  moral  and  religious 
education.  The  simple  knowledge  of  the  facts, 
daily  brought  up  to  date,  will  make  known  many 
large  wastes  and  show  how  they  may  be  avoided. 
PossibiUty  of  small  economies  —  that  count  much 
in  the  aggregate  —  will  be  recognized  at  the  same 
time,  —  a  saving  not  only  or  chiefly  of  money, 
even  in  the  long  run,  but  of  human  health,  of 
human  energy,  of  human  sensibility,  of  human 
power  of  growth,  of  work,  of  joy.  Men  are  bound 
to  come  to  see,  more  and  more,  the  possibility  of 
conserving  their  energy  in  far  greater  degree  than 
is  now  the  case.  This  recognition  of  the  possi- 
bility of  saving  our  energies  may  be  even  more 
important  than  the  discovery  of  new  levels  of 
energy  yet  untapped,  important  as  these  may 
be. 

Moral  and  religious  workers  will  recognize,  also, 
the  special  danger  of  not  applying  in  their  own 


132     THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

sphere  this  test  of  efficiency,  just  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  definite  testing  of  moral  and 
spiritual  progress.  They  will,  therefore,  strive  the 
more  earnestly  to  make  certain  that  education 
may  not  fail  to  meet  the  test  of  efficiency.  It  is 
to  be  feared  that  vague  claims  as  to  moral  atmos- 
phere are  too  often  made  to  cover  serious  educa- 
tional defects.  In  any  case,  we  may  count  it 
certain  that  the  years  just  ahead  will  demand  that 
educational  and  religious  institutions  of  every 
kind  shall  be  able  to  meet  the  strictest  and  most 
delicately  applied  tests  of  efficiency.  For  the 
coming  generation  cannot  be  satisfied  with  any- 
thing less  than  the  fittest  man  and  the  fittest  pos- 
sible society.  This  is  the  meaning  of  what  has 
been  called  the  awakening  of  "the  physical  con- 
science," and  of  the  new  reasons  for  personal 
temperance,  tellingly  asserted  so  recently  by  Dr. 
H.  S.  Wilhams.  And  we  shall  not  be  satisfied 
with  lower  standards  of  vitaHty  and  efficiency 
applied  to  the  intellectual,  the  moral,  and  the 
religious  life,  both  of  the  individual  and  of 
society. 

These  wider  and  profounder  bearings  of  natural 
science  and  of  the  theory  of  evolution  upon  morals 
and  religion  sufficiently  indicate   the   insanity  of 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD   OF   THOUGHT      1 33 

that  fighting  of  natural  science  and  of  evolution 
which  is  still  found,  unhappily,  at  various  points, 
both  at  home  and  on  the  mission  field.  There  are 
missionaries,  in  many  fields,  of  honest  intent  but 
with  a  false  conception  of  the  meaning  of  modern 
science,  who  are  standing  right  athwart  the  path, 
for  example,  of  educated  Indians,  Chinese,  and 
Japanese,  and  preventing  them  from  coming  into 
the  Christian  faith,  because  they  insist  that  to 
accept  in  any  form  the  theory  of  evolution  makes 
Christian  faith  impossible.  The  mistaken  oppo- 
sition of  such  missionaries  should  turn  itself, 
rather,  to  the  facing  of  the  real  dangers  connected 
with  an  exclusively  mechanical  and  materialistic 
interpretation  of  the  facts  of  nature  and  of  human 
life,  to  which  they  are  really  driving  these  men 
whom  they  would  help.  They  should  direct  their 
energies  to  making  clear  that  the  ideal  interpreta- 
tions of  morals  and  religion  need  have  no  quarrel 
with  the  mechanical  explanations  of  natural 
science ;  and  they  should  be  able  to  see,  with 
Lotze,  that  mechanism  (with  which  alone  science 
has  to  do)  is  indeed  ''absolutely  universal  in  ex- 
tent, but  completely  subordinate  in  significance."  ^ 

^  Cf.  King,  Reconstruction  in  Theology,  pp.  48  ff. 


134     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

II 

THE   HISTORICAL  SPIRIT 

The  historical  spirit,  too,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  is  a  distinctly  modern  phenomenon,  for  it 
practically  had  its  birth,  as  must  be  clearly  recog- 
nized, within  the  last  century.  The  most  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  destitute  of  it.  It  has 
evident  close  connections  with  the  thought  of  evo- 
lution. But  the  attitude  is  not  confined  to  in- 
vestigators in  natural  science.  "Our  outlook  upon 
life  differs  in  just  this  particular  from  that  of  pre- 
ceding ages,"  and  the  historical  spirit  has  affected 
every  line  of  investigation.  The  following  char- 
acterization of  modern  historical  methods  illus- 
trates the  painstaking  way  in  which  it  is  attempted 
to  build  up  before  the  historical  imagination  the 
whole  past  situation  :  "  Psychology  has  been  drawn 
upon  to  interpret  the  movements  of  revolutions  or 
religions,  anthropology  and  ethnology  furnish  a 
clue  to  problems  to  which  the  key  of  documents 
has  been  lost.  Genealogy,  heraldry  and  chronol- 
ogy run  parallel  with  the  wider  subject.  But  the 
real  auxiliary  sciences  to  history  are  those  which 
deal  with  those  traces  of  the  past  that  still  exist, 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD   OF   THOUGHT      135 

the  science  of  language  (philology),  of  writing 
(palaeography),  of  documents  (diplomatic),  of  seals 
(sphragistics) ,  of  coins  (numismatics),  of  weights 
and  measures,  and  archaeology  in  the  widest  sense 
of  the  word.  These  sciences  underlie  the  wide 
development  of  scientific  history."  ^  Here,  now, 
is  a  more  and  more  powerful  intellectual  move- 
ment of  our  time,  that  is  affecting  points  of  view 
in  all  the  realms  of  human  life,  and  is  felt  to  have 
revolutionary  results  at  vital  points.  What  is  its 
moral  and  religious  significance  ? 

I.  Its  moral  significance.  Upon  the  moral  side, 
the  historical  spirit  plainly  requires  the  ability  to 
enter  sympathetically  and  understandingly  into 
the  life  and  thought  of  other  peoples  and  periods, 
to  put  one's  self  truly  in  their  place,  to  discern  and 
to  estimate  all  their  environing  conditions  with 
imagination  and  insight.  All  this,  it  is  to  be  noted, 
is  the  very  first  condition  of  a  genuine  practice  of 
the  Golden  Rule.  It  is  most  significant  and  sug- 
gestive that  all  our  great  modern  investigators, 
both  in  the  field  of  physical  nature  and  in  the 
realm  of  human  Hfe,  so  far  as  they  have  been  true 
to  the  ideals  of  their  own  sciences,  have  been 
obliged  to  take  on  the  great  primary  Christian 

^  Ency.  Brit.,  art.  "  History'. " 


136     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

virtues  for  their  successful  achievements.  Modern 
science  and  modern  history  are  abiding  evidences 
of  the  basic  nature  of  humble,  open-minded  will- 
ingness to  face  the  facts,  and  of  understanding 
sympathy.  The  historical  spirit  demands,  thus, 
in  the  inquirer,  the  development  of  the  sense  of 
likeness  between  himself  and  these  ahen  peoples 
and  periods.  For  we  can  understand  the  life  of 
another,  only  in  the  degree  in  which  we  see  that 
his  life  is  like  ours.  We  are  obhged  at  every 
point  to  see  our  own  experience  as  the  unlocking 
key.  Like  is  known  only  by  like.  But  this  sense 
of  likeness  is,  in  turn,  a  fundamental  element  of 
the  social  consciousness,  and,  so  far  as  it  is  truly 
taken  on,  it  registers  for  the  individual  a  distinct 
moral  advance.  In  evidence  of  this,  let  one  think 
of  the  deadly  effect  of  the  constant  excuse,  given 
through  the  centuries,  for  leaving  unchanged  the 
hard  conditions  of  the  depressed  classes  —  "They 
do  not  feel  it  as  we  would."  There  is  just  enough 
truth  in  this  statement,  on  account  chiefly  of  the  fact 
of  habituation  to  different  conditions,  easily  to  blind 
our  eyes  to  its  essential  falseness  and  brutality. 

It  follows  that  the  genuine  historical  spirit 
should  be  particularly  and  directly  helpful  in  over- 
coming race  prejudice,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       I37 

one  of  the  greatest  present  obstacles  to  the  progress 
of  the  race  in  every  sphere.  A  man  truly  pos- 
sessed of  the  historical  spirit  ought  to  be  pecul- 
iarly guarded  against  petty  race  antagonisms. 
Fiction,  too,  when  written  in  the  historical  spirit, 
may  render  a  great  similar  service,  in  helping  to  a 
better  understanding  of  other  classes  and  sections 
and  races.  For  we  all  peculiarly  need  some  vivid- 
ness of  imagination  to  inform  and  guide  our  con- 
science. That  is,  distinct  moral  help,  in  a  difiS- 
cult  problem,  is  here  brought  from  a  widespread 
field  of  human  intellectual  endeavor. 

To  these  moral  contributions  of  the  historical 
spirit  are  to  be  added,  of  course,  the  lessons  directly 
to  be  drawn  from  history  itself,  for  guidance  in 
further  progress. 

2.  Its  religious  significance.  The  religious  sig- 
nificance of  the  historical  spirit  is  to  be  seen  in  its 
application  in  the  field  of  comparative  religion, 
which  deserves  separate  treatment,  and  in  the 
so-called  higher  criticism  of  the  great  religious 
literatures  of  the  race.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
is  only  through  such  genuine  historical  criticism 
that  we  can  come  to  the  right  use  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  or  to  the  legitimate  defense  of  their 
supreme  value.     On  the  other  hand,  such  genuine 


138     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

historical  criticism,  applied  to  the  sacred  books  of 
the  other  religions,  has  a  vital  and  indispensable 
contribution  to  make,  especially  in  India,  and  in 
only  less  degree  in  China  and  Japan,  to  the  prepa- 
ration for  that  more  adequate  ethical  and  religious 
viewpoint  that  must  follow.     At  present  much  is 
read  into  these  sacred  books  that  came  from  quite 
different   sources,    and    the    true    origin    of    these 
larger  ethical  and  religious  insights  is,  therefore, 
not  acknowledged.     At  this  point,  also,  there  are 
missionaries   who   mistakenly   conceive   it    to    be 
their  bounden  duty  to  oppose  at  every  point  the 
historical    criticism   of    the    Christian    Scriptures; 
although  they  would  know,  if  they  put  things  in 
relation,   that  the  process  is  exactly  what  is  re- 
quired for  a  true  reading  of  the  sacred  books  of 
other  reHgions.     They  occasionally,  too,  perceive 
that  the  results  of  the  historical  criticism  of  the 
Bible  are  helpful  in  meeting  the  difficulties  and 
objections  of  non-Christians.     But  they  quite  fail 
adequately   to   understand    the   seriousness,    even 
from  the  missionary  point  of  view,  of  decrying  the 
historical  and  literary  criticism  of  sacred  litera- 
tures.    To  oppose  historical  criticism  is  ultimately 
greatly  to  hinder,  not  to  help,  the  religious  and 
Christian  forces  in  their  conquest  of  the  world. 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF   THOUGHT      1 39 

III 

THE  NEW  PSYCHOLOGY 

The  new  psychology,  too,  belongs  to  the  recent 
years,  and  is  a  large  factor  in  the  new  inner  world 
of  thought.  Like  natural  science,  its  point  of 
view  is  that  of  observation,  experience,  and  experi- 
ment. Its  method,  therefore,  is  not  a  priori,  but 
it  seeks  an  approach  to  human  nature  like  that  of 
natural  science  to  external  nature,  and  hopes  for 
an  analogous  conquest  here.  It  aims,  therefore, 
to  disclose  the  laws  of  life,  —  the  laws  of  the  na- 
ture of  man  and  their  involved  conditions.  Its 
ideal  significance  is  to  be  seen  at  various  points. 

I.  Just  so  far  as  psychology  is  successful  in 
disclosing  the  laws  of  man's  nature  with  their  great 
dominant  emphases,  morals  and  religion,  in  the 
first  place,  must  regard  these  laws  as  a  revelation 
of  the  will  of  God  —  the  Creator  of  that  nature. 
The  laws  will,  therefore,  be  felt  to  point  here,  just 
as  in  physical  nature,  through  the  fulfillment  of 
their  involved  conditions,  to  possible  achievement 
and  conquest.  For  one  can  know  that,  in  obey- 
ing these  laws,  he  is  working  in  line  with  the 
forces  of  the  universe,  —  in  hne  with  the  will  of 
God.    At  this  point,  too,  there  comes  in,  through 


140     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

the  discernment  of  laws,  a  great  new  element  of 
hope  for  the  progress  of  the  race.  And  all  that 
has  been  earlier  said  of  the  significance  of  the  new 
scientific  emphasis  upon  a  law-abiding  and  evolv- 
ing world  has  its  application  in  this  realm  of 
human  nature,  and  need  not  be  repeated. 

2.  Through  its  discernment  of  the  laws  of  hu- 
man nature,  psychology  should  be  able  to  point, 
in  the  second  place,  to  definite  and  concrete  and 
real  ideals,  avoiding  fictions  and  abstractions  and 
futilities.  It  means  very  much  that  men  should 
be  able  at  any  point  in  their  moral  struggle  to 
feel  beneath  their  feet  the  assured  basis  of  solid 
fact.  They  need  to  know  that  they  are  not  grop- 
ing around  in  the  dark,  without  knowledge  of 
either  definite  goals  to  be  sought,  or  of  definite 
means  for  their  attainment.  And  psychology  has 
the  power  to  render  the  great  service  of  giving 
reality  and  definiteness  to  moral  ideals,  and  of 
showing  just  how  they  may  be  reahzed.  Psy- 
chology, of  course,  needs  here  the  supplementing 
help  of  sociology. 

3.  It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  the  great  prac- 
tical emphases  of  modern  psychology  upon  the 
complexity  of  life,  the  unity  of  man,  the  central 
importance  of  will  and  action,  and  the  primacy  of 


OF    THE    NEW    INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       14I 

the  personal,^  are  particularly  needed  in  the  Orient 
—  and  especially  in  India  — ■  to-day,  if  the  highest 
ideals  of  Christian  civilization  are  to  prevail 
among  all  peoples.  For  they  bring  into  promi- 
nence the  very  truths  that  the  East  has  disas- 
trously ignored,  in  its  tendency  to  abstract  specu- 
lation, to  a  mere  passivity  in  religion,  and  to  a 
communal  civilization  that  has  no  respect  for  per- 
sonality as  such.  Psychology  may  thus  be  said 
to  have  a  genuinely  world  task.  The  truth  is, 
that  these  greatly  needed  practical  truths  which 
modern  psychology  is  emphasizing  can  probably 
be  brought  home  to  the  oriental  mind  with  less 
prejudice  through  a  psychological  presentation 
than  in  any  other  way.  What  the  Imperial 
Gazetteer^  calls  ''certain  characteristic  peculiarities 
of  the  Indian  intellect  —  its  lax  hold  on  facts,  its 
indifference  to  action,  its  absorption  in  dreams,  its 
exaggerated  reverence  for  tradition,  its  passion  for 
endless  division  and  subdivision,  and  its  acute 
sense  of  minute  technical  distinctions  "— would 
all  be  helped  by  this  concrete  psychological  ap- 
proach to  the  problems  of  human  living. 

4.  What  has  been  called  "the  inner  health  move- 
ment"   also,    is   obviously  closely  connected   with 

'  See  King,  Rational  Living.  ^  Vol.  I,  p.  347. 


142      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

this  sense  of  law  in  the  psychical  world.  In  spite 
of  multitudinous  vagaries  that  make  it  hard  to 
be  patient  with  many  of  its  aspects,  the  thoughtful 
observer  may  not  ignore  the  ideal  significance  of 
the  movement  in  its  entirety.  For  while  probably 
generally  too  self-centered,  this  "inner  health 
movement'.'  must  still  be  recognized  as  notably 
widespread,  and  as  genuinely  religious  in  its  sig- 
nificance and  aim  and  intensity.  Sane  psychology 
ought  to  be  able  to  help  the  moral  and  religious 
forces  to  direct  this  movement  to  really  worthy 
results.  It  can  hardly  be  delivered,  otherwise, 
from  ultimate  disaster. 

IV 

SOCIOLOGY 

Sociology  is  still  more  distinctly  modern.  It 
builds  on  so  many  and  so  complex  data  that  it 
must  be  regarded  as  the  most  imperfect  of  sciences, 
if  it  deserves  the  name  at  all.  But  it  has  the 
great  virtue  of  attempting  to  see  the  problem  of 
human  welfare  and  human  progress  whole,  and  of 
grappling  directly  with  that  problem.  It  calls  for 
acquaintance  with  social  facts,  and  seeks  to  dis- 
cover   the    fundamental    laws    of    all    permanent 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF   THOUGHT      1 43 

progress,  with  their  involved  conditions.  The 
moral  and  religious  significance  of  sociology,  in 
view  of  the  previous  discussions,  can  be  briefly 
put. 

1 .  A  moral  ideal  is  involved  in  the  very  existence 
of  the  science,  since  sociology  builds  directly  on 
the  social  consciousness  and  seeks  to  make  that 
consciousness  prevail.  It  has,  thus,  gradually 
deepened  for  modern  men  the  sense  of  the  impera- 
tive need  of  moral  qualities,  if  the  race  is  to  ad- 
vance, and  has  indicated  with  considerable  clear- 
ness what  these  qualities  are ;  namely,  the  qualities 
of  the  social  consciousness.  It  sees  the  goal  of 
human  history  in  a  rational,  ethical  democracy  — ■ 
a  democracy  that  is,  therefore,  both  scientifically 
and  ethically  based,  and  so  must  make  severe 
demands  on  each  generation  and  each  cooperating 
individual. 

2.  So  far  as  sociology  is  able  to  discern  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  the  permanent  progress  of  the  race, 
men  must  recognize  these  laws  as  laws  of  the 
universe,  —  as  laws  of  God.  Sociology,  therefore, 
like  psychology,  and  on  a  broader  field,  should 
help  morals  and  religion  to  concrete  reality,  to  a 
sense  of  cooperation  with  God,  and,  consequently, 
to  a  new  feeling  of  hope  and  of  the  possibility  of 


144     THE    M_EAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

large  achievement.  Here  also  the  scientific  sense 
of  law,  not  as  an  inscrutable  and  inescapable  fate, 
but  as  a  revelation  of  the  secret  of  power,  tends  to 
bring  in  a  new  and  stimulating  atmosphere.  That 
atmosphere,  as  we  have  seen,  is  essentially  that  of 
religious  faith.  For  when  we  discover  and  obey  a 
law,  we  seem  to  discern  a  way  of  God's  own  ac- 
tivity, and  so  to  get  the  consciousness  of  cooperat- 
ing with  him.  Our  analysis,  therefore,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  science  and  psychology  and  soci- 
ology, all  alike,  require  a  basis  of  religious  faith 
to  give  them  full  and  abiding  significance. 

3.  The  most  definite  contribution  of  sociology 
to  the  moral  and  religious  life  —  aside  from  its 
setting  before  the  human  will  definite  social  goals 
and  concrete  social  tasks  —  is  its  clear  indication 
of  the  elements  of  the  social  consciousness,  with  their 
constant  moral  and  religious  suggestiveness.  For, 
on  the  reUgious  side,  sociology's  goal  is  that  civili- 
zation of  the  brotherly  man  which  Christ  came  to 
establish,  and  its  social  consciousness  is  hardly 
more  than  a  scientific  statement  of  what  that 
Christian  brotherly  love  definitely  means.  And, 
on  the  moral  side,  the  elements  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness all  make  a  clear  ethical  demand,  and,  as 
defining  love,  are  as  all-inclusive  of  the  ethical  life 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF   THOUGHT      145 

as  love  itself.  The  elements  of  the  social  conscious- 
ness may  be  said  to  be  the  sense  of  likeness  or  like- 
mindedness,  the  sense  of  mutual  influence,  the 
sense  of  the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of  the 
individual  person,  or  of  reverence  for  the  person 
as  such,  and  the  consequent  sense  of  obHgation 
and  of  sacrificial  love.  All  of  them  may  be  said 
to  be  included  in  the  one  element  of  reverence  for 
the  person  as  such,  when  that  reverence  is  ade- 
quately conceived,  and  they  find  there  their  vital 
unity.  The  very  statement  of  these  elements  of 
the  social  consciousness  indicates  how  high  an 
ethical  ideal  this  new  science  of  sociology  is  hold- 
ing before  the  modern  man. 

Have  we,  any  of  us,  measured  or  sufficiently 
valued  the  enormous  strengthening  and  verifica- 
tion  of   essentially   Christian  motives   and   aims, 
that  are  involved  in  this  great  modern  movement 
of  thought  —  so  conspicuous  a  factor  in  the  new 
inner  world  of  our  time  ?     These  aspirations  of  the 
social  consciousness,  when  taken  with  the  "inner 
health  movement,"  therefore,  naturally  form  wh?' 
has  been  called  "the  two  enthusiasms"  which  r 
"real  and  rehgious  amongst  us  at  the  present  d;i^ 
And  the  social  enthusiasm  is  distinctly  less  sc  . 
centered  than  the  other,  and  wholesomely  supple- 


146     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ments  it.  The  religious  consciousness  is  not  at 
fault  in  attaching  itself  so  markedly  to  both  move- 
ments. For  both  are  needed  if  we  are  to  have 
a  developing  individual  in  a  developing  society. 
But  both  require  a  solid  foundation  of  assured 
fact,  and  of  verified  laws.  The  scientific  spirit 
must  permeate  them  both. 


COMPARATIVE   RELIGION 

The  scientific  study  of  religion,  too,  is  a  part 
of  the  history  of  the  last  fifty  years.  It  is  a  par- 
ticular application  of  the  historical  method  in  the 
supreme  sphere  of  religion. 

1.  Its  moral  and  religious  significance  is  obvious. 
It  calls,  in  the  first  place,  in  even  higher  degree, 
for  the  same  moral  qualities  demanded  by  the 
general  historical  spirit ;  —  in  higher  degree,  be- 
cause so  much  is  felt  to  be  at  stake  in  religion, 
that  prejudice  is  particularly  likely  here  to  make 
itself  felt.  Comparative  religion  has  thus  meant 
sympathetic  understanding  of  the  highest  ideals  of 
other  peoples  and  civiHzations,  and  an  attempt 
genuinely  to  share  in  their  best. 

2.  This  attempt  of  the  historical  spirit  in  the 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT      I47 

religious  sphere  can  hardly  fail  thus  to  develop 
a  discriminating  tolerance,  and  that  organic  ideal 
of  religious  truth,  that  naturally  expects  to  gain 
through  sharing  in  the  best  insights  of  all.  For 
it  is  an  obvious  misreading  of  comparative  religion 
that  leads  one  to  put  all  religious  phenomena  and 
literatures  on  the  same  level.  Scientific  study 
means  discernment  of  differences  as  well  as  of  like- 
nesses. Indeed,  its  evolutionary  hypothesis  natu- 
rally suggests  differences  of  level,  and  looks  for 
advance  from  one  level  to  another,  while  carrying 
on  to  each  succeeding  stage  the  achievement  of 
the  preceding  stages.  Comparative  religion,  thus, 
searches  for  the  psychological  and  historical  justi- 
fication of  the  religious  phenomena  it  studies,  and 
so  is  able  to  discern  real  values  in  most  unpromis- 
ing material,  and  is  thus  helped  to  see  their  sig- 
nificance for  our  present  life  and  thought.  It 
should  be  able  distinctly  to  enrich  the  religious 
consciousness  of  our  day.  For  even  the  highest 
religion  cannot  wish  to  believe  that  the  religious 
struggles  of  the  race  have  been  wholly  meaningless 
and  fruitless. 

3.  Comparative  religion,  too,  bears  unmistak- 
able testimony  to  the  permanence  of  religion,  and 
to  the  vastness  of  its  meaning  and  of  its  claim  on 


148     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

life.  The  rise  of  comparative  religion  has  in- 
evitably meant  increasing  recognition  of  man  as 
essentially,  and,  to  use  Sabatier's  phrase,  "incurably 
religious,"  Thus  on  the  historical  side  Lord 
Acton  bears  witness:  "We  all  know  from  twenty 
to  thirty  predominant  currents  of  thought  or  atti- 
tudes of  mind  or  system-bearing  principles,  which, 
jointly  or  severally,  weave  the  web  of  human  his- 
tory and  constitute  the  civilized  opinion  of  the 
age.  .  .  .  The  majority  of  them  are  either  re- 
ligions or  substitutes  for  religion."  The  immense 
increase  in  the  literature  upon  both  the  psy- 
chology and  the  history  of  religion  is  confirmatory 
evidence.  Witness  the  great  series  of  the  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,  the  numerous  other  libraries 
upon  the  religions  of  the  world,  the  Hibbert 
Foundation,  the  Hibbert  Lectures,  and  the  Hibbert 
Journal,  the  various  series  of  Gifford  Lectures,  and 
the  great  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  now 
issuing,  and  unnumbered  monographs  on  every 
conceivable  phase  of  the  question. 

This  rise  of  the  science  of  comparative  religion 
has  inevitably  been  accompanied,  also,  by  increas- 
ing philosophical  recognition  of  religious  experiences. 
The  specifically  religious  is  being  recognized  as 
furnishing  data  for  the  philosophical  interpretation 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF   THOUGHT      1 49 

of  man,  and  of  the  world,  in  a  way  hardly  dreamed 
of  earlier.  And  no  earlier  form  of  philosophical 
thinking  has  had  a  larger  or  more  natural  place 
for  religion,  than  has  the  latest  philosophical 
movement,  pragmatism,  with  its  extraordinary 
emphasis  on  the  concrete  and  personal.  Certainly 
a  philosophy  permeated  with  a  religious  spirit  was 
never  more  possible  than  to-day.  We  cannot  get 
permanent  meaning  and  value  for  Kfe  without 
religious  faith.  Frank  recognition  of  the  religious, 
as  an  undoubted  and  essential  element  in  human 
life  and  experience,  the  future  must  certainly  show. 
It  is  hardly  open  to  question,  either,  that  all 
future  forms  of  education  must  recognize,  that 
the  motives  of  religion  are  ultimately  irreplaceable, 
as  was  pointed  out  in  the  last  International  Con- 
gress on  Moral  Education,  held  in  London.  Moral 
endeavor  itself  needs  and  requires  faith  in  the 
ethical  trend  of  the  universe.  It  must  at  least 
beHeve  that  the  world  is  sufficiently  moral  to 
allow  the  possibility  of  the  moral  hfe.  And  it  will 
greatly  suffer,  if  it  cannot  add  to  this  faith  in  the 
bare  possibility  of  the  moral,  the  further  faith, 
in  Nash's  language,  that  "the  universe  is  on  the 
side  of  the  will."  Whether  or  not  we  believe  in 
the  possibiUty  of  rational  religious  faith,  we  ought 


150     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

at  least  to  be  candid  enough  to  admit  that  noth- 
ing can  take  the  place  of  the  motives  that  come 
from  such  religious  faith.     And  John  Stuart  Mill 
and  Sully  and   Seeley  all  bear  witness   that  not 
even  our  largest  social  goals  can  be  held  to  replace 
the  religious  motive.     We  may  reasonably  expect, 
therefore,  that  the  virtual  religious  presuppositions 
of  ethics  are  sure  to  make  themselves  felt  more 
and  more,  even  if  unconsciously.     Upon  that  point 
we  need  have  no   fear.     Even   our  most   secular 
education,  if  it  is  genuinely  and  thoroughly  ethical, 
will  thereby  carry  with  it  a  kind  of  essentially 
religious    faith.     In    the    language    of    Muirhead, 
commenting   upon   "the   central   problem   of    the 
International    Congress    on    Moral    Education": 
*"A  man's  confidence  in  himself,'  said  Hegel,  'is 
much  the  same  as  his  confidence  in  the  universe 
and  in  God,'  and  what  is  true  of  the  individual  is 
true  of  humanity.     Without  such  confidence  it  is 
difficult  to  see  with  what  ultimate  convincingness 
appeal  can  be  made  to  the  ideals  of  humanity; 
with  it  we  are  beginning  to  see  how  a  new  inspira- 
tion can  be  brought  to  the  work  of  moral  educa- 
tion as  the  development  in  souls,  prepared  by  their 
own  deepest  instincts  to  respond,  of  an  attitude 
of  mind  which  shall  be  true  not  only  to  their  own 


OF    THE    NEW    INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       151 

manhood  and  womanhood  in  what  is  seen  and 
temporal,  but  to  that  which  is  unseen  and  eternal 
in  the  world  at  large."  If  man  is  essentially 
religious,  then  the  very  unity  of  man  makes  prac- 
tically certain  that  these  virtually  religious  presup- 
positions of  his  moral  aims  cannot  remain  wholly 
hidden. 

4.  The  progress  of  comparative  religion  makes 
certain,  also,  that  more  and  more  rehgious  edu- 
cation will  make  use  of  the  contribution  of  the 
entire  religious  consciousness  of  the  race,  especially 
of  oriental  thought,  and  that  religious  faith  every- 
where will  share  in  increasing  degree  in  the  best 
insights  of  all.  And  even  the  highest  religion, 
that  may  not  feel  the  need  of  any  of  the  subordi- 
nate faiths,  may  itself,  thus,  receive  enlarged 
interpretation. 

The  new  inner  world,  with  its  great  new  science 
of  comparative  religion,  demands,  thus,  that  man's 
future  shall  face  the  problem  of  keeping  the  mean- 
ing, — •  the  ideal  interpretation  of  the  world  and 
of  life,  • —  side  by  side  with  scientific  explanation 
of  its  processes.  There  will  he  a  future  religious 
education  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term.  Re- 
ligion is  here  to  stay.  Indeed,  our  survey  of 
present-day  conditions,  external  and  inner,  shows 


152      THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

how  imperative  is  the  need,  at  every  point,  for  a 
faith  essentially  religious,  if  the  race  is  to  rise  to 
mastery  of  its  present  inheritance,  and  to  con- 
tinue its  advance.  Again  and  again,  we  have 
found  that  the  conquest  even  of  the  external  con- 
ditions of  our  time  insistently  demanded  reUgious 
faith  in  abiding  ideals  and  purposes.  In  Eucken's 
words,  "it  is  only  as  a  characteristic  expression  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  that  civilization  can  have  any 
inward  coherence,  clear  meaning,  and  controlling 
purpose."  ^  The  study  of  comparative  religion 
only  confirms  this  necessity,  in  the  witness  it  bears 
to  the  tenacious  hold  and  enormous  influence  of 
religion  in  the  history  of  the  race.  The  man  of 
religious  faith  has  no  reason  for  discouragement, 
to-day,  in  spite  of  the  stupendous  problems  which 
confront  all  ideal  interests.  Great  inevitable 
trends  are  at  work,  which  men  did  not  indeed 
create,  but  which  they  may  discern,  and  with 
which  they  may  intelligently  and  unselfishly 
cooperate. 

But  the  new  inner  world  of  thought  cannot  be 
adequately  characterized  without  a  brief  survey, 
also,  of  modern  philosophical  and  theological 
tendencies.     For    it    peculiarly    belongs    to    these 

1  The  Meaning  and  Value  of  Life,  p.  105. 


OF   THE    NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT       1 53 

departments  of  thought  to  interpret  the  meaning 
of  all  the  data  brought  to  them  by  these  other 
intellectual  movements  of  our  time, 

VI 

THE  PHILOSOPHICAL  TREND 

It  is  a  matter  of  significance,  in  the  first  place, 
that  interest  and  work  in  philosophy  in  all  the 
leading  nations  have  so  greatly  grown  in  recent 
years,  even  on  the  part  of  natural  scientists.  For 
this  itself  is  evidence  that  thoughtful  men  are 
increasingly  seeing  that  we  cannot  give  up  the 
problem  of  the  meaning  of  the  world  and  of  life, 
and  that  we  certainly  cannot  stop  in  the  earlier 
crude  materialistic  inferences  from  modern  science. 
This,  in  itself,  is  a  great  ideal  gain. 

But  the  new  inner  world  of  thought  has  greatly 
affected  present  philosophical  tendencies.  First 
of  all  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  philosophy  has 
largely  abandoned  a  purely  a  priori  attitude.  If 
it  is  to  interpret  the  world  and  men,  it  knows  that 
it  needs,  first  of  all,  to  get  the  facts  concerning 
them.  It  seeks,  therefore,  to  use  all  the  data 
coming  from  the  great  lines  of  inquiry,  with 
which  we  have  been  dealing,  and  to  build  directly 


154      THE   M0R.4L   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

upon  them.  It  hopes  thus  to  keep  its  philoso- 
phizing real,  in  the  truest  sense,  and  to  make 
some  genuine  progress. 

It  tends,  also,  to  an  increasing  use  of  the  scien- 
tific method,  so  far  as  that  is  possible  in  dealing 
with  problems  of  philosophy.  This  has  its  most 
notable  illustration,  of  course,  in  pragmatism, 
which  practically  seeks  to  make  the  scientific 
method  of  proving  an  hypothesis  the  ruling  method 
in  philosophy.  But  the  tendency  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  pragmatists.  Practically  all  schools 
of  philosophy  would  recognize  the  necessity  of 
using  the  method  at  many  points. 

It  is  obvious,  too,  that  the  theory  of  evolution, 

J  connecting  itself  with  the  earlier  philosophical  use 
of  the  analogy  of  the  organism,  is  strongly  affect- 
ing philosophical  thinking.  The  most  conspicuous 
instance  is  Bergson,  who  seeks,  as  he  says,  "a  true 

■  evolutionism,  in  which  reality  would  be  followed 
in  its  generation  and  its  growth"  ;  and  the  idealis- 
tic trend  of  his  interpretation  is  noteworthy.  But 
the  evolution  point  of  view  makes  itself  felt,  in 
method  of  treatment,  at  least,  in  widely  different 
philosophies. 

It  is,  in  part,  the  same  instinct  for  reality  — 
the  determination  to  take  into  account  all  the  facts, 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 55 

and  to  refuse  to  be  put  off  by  mere  analysis  of 
notions  and  by  false  abstractions  —  that  has  led  to 
the  repeated  emphasis  of  our  present-day  philoso- 
phy upon  the  whole  man,  upon  "  personalism "  in 
some  form.  Some  of  the  most  important  contri- 
butions of  modern  philosophical  thinking  might 
be  so  characterized.  And  yet,  when  a  really  ulti- 
mate view  is  sought,  it  is  to  be  suspected  that 
there  will  be  increasing  agreement  with  Eucken, 
that  a  satisfying  personalism  must  have  a  religious 
basis,  if  life  is  to  keep  its  meaning  and  value. 
"We  reject  the  tendency  to  use  personality  lightly 
as  a  catchword  and  ready  cure-all  for  every  evil 
of  the  times,  since  personality  must  first  be  given 
a  content  and  a  cosmic  setting,  and  it  is  just  here 
that  the  most  serious  complications  arise."  ^ 

Various  phenomena  of  our  time,  as  we  have 
seen,  point  to  the  imperativeness  of  an  ultimate 
religious  basis  for  all  our  living  and  thinking. 
The  collapse  of  materialism,  the  growing  idealistic 
interpretations  of  the  facts  of  natural  science,  the 
increasing  use  of  religious  experiences  as  philo- 
sophical data,  the  possible  bearing  of  psychical 
research,  and  the  extent  to  which  all  the  great 
movements  of  our  time  need  to  root  in  a  religious 

*  The  M catling  and  Value  of  Life,  p.  143. 


156     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

faith,  if  they  are  to  be  either  ethically  or  intel- 
lectually satisfying  —  are  all  indications  of  the 
moral  and  religious  significance  of  the  present 
philosophical  trend.  It  demands  reality,  honest 
facing  of  the  facts,  and  full  use  of  all  the  other 
intellectual  labors  and  experiences  of  men,  and  it 
sees,  in  encouraging  degree,  the  crucial  significance 
of  personality  and  of  a  religious  basis  for  thought. 

VII 

THE   THEOLOGICAL   TREND 

The  theological  tendencies  of  our  day  also  show 
the  plain  influence  of  the  other  modern  lines  of 
thought  reviewed.  On  every  hand,  for  example, 
is  to  be  seen  an  increasing  use  of  the  psychological 
and  historical  approach  to  moral  and  religious 
problems.  The  literature  on  the  psychological  as 
well  as  historical  treatment  of  religion  has  grown 
astonishingly  in  the  last  decade.  In  applying  the 
historical  method,  the  inner  logic  of  a  theological 
dogma  can  be  so  disclosed  as  to  give  its  complete 
refutation.  And  this  method  has  been  used  by 
both  Sabatier  and  Foster  in  dealing  with  the 
notion  of  absolute  authority  in  religion.  We  are 
thus  approaching,  both  by  the  psychological  and 


OF    THE    NEW    INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 57 

the  historical  road,  Christ's  double  insistence  on 
the  need  both  of  mental  and  spiritual  fellowship, 
and  of  mental  and  spiritual  independence  on  the 
part  of  the  individual.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that 
Eucken's  more  philosophical  survey  and  analysis 
of  modern  conditions  reaches  this  same  conclusion 
of  the  absolute  necessity,  if  there  is  to  be  a  sig- 
nificant life,  of  an  inner  insistent,  masterful  spiritu- 
ality. Theology,  too,  is  clearly  aiming  to  build 
more  and  more  upon  the  history  of  religions,  and 
upon  the  historical  criticism  of  the  great  religious 
Hteratures  of  the  race,  especially  the  Bible.  This 
helps  to  insure  to  it  both  reality  and  vitality. 

The  influence  of  modern  science  upon  theology 
is  to  be  seen,  not  only  in  the  more  general  use  of  the 
evolutionary  point  of  view,  implied  in  the  his- 
torical treatment  of  religion ;  but  also  in  the  deep- 
ening conviction  of  law  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
world.  The  religious  consciousness  sees  in  these 
laws  God's  own  habitual  ways  of  working,  and 
evidence  of  his  faithfulness  in  dealing  with  men. 
But  it  does  not  attempt  any  longer  to  assert  an 
identity  of  natural  and  spiritual  laws.  Just  because 
the  moral  and  spiritual  world  is  seen  to  be  a  world 
of  personal  relations,  it  knows  that  the  laws  of 
that  world  must  be  predominantly  laws  of  per- 


158     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

sonal  relation.  Theology  tends,  thus,  increasingly, 
in  line  with  the  philosophical  trend,  to  interpret 
its  doctrines  in  personal  terms.  It  cannot  believe 
that  it  reaches  ultimate  reality  in  the  spiritual 
world,  until  it  reaches  persons.  If  I  rightly  inter- 
pret the  trend  at  this  point,  theology  tends,  then, 
to  become  more  and  more  characteristically  per- 
sonal, ethical,  social,  historical,  biblical,  and  Chris- 
tian in  its  emphases.  And  with  a  true  personalism 
its  apologetic  growingly  builds  upon  the  essential 
unity  of  human  ideals,  upon  the  conviction  of  the 
final  simplicity  of  rehgion,  and  of  the  indispens- 
able contribution  which  religion  has  to  make  to 
life  at  every  point.  Religion  is  able  to  verify 
itself  in  the  same  way  that  holds  of  other  spheres 
of  value,  and,  especially,  in  line  with  the  laws  of 
developing  personal  relations.  For  myself,  I  can- 
not doubt,  either,  that  the  world's  experience  bears 
unmistakably  toward  the  Christian  religion.  Under 
the  double  pressure  of  the  scientific  spirit  and  of 
the  social  consciousness  of  our  modern  civilization, 
in  its  spread  over  the  world,  it  is  becoming  more 
and  more  difficult  to  keep  belief  in  any  other 
religion.  The  Orient  is  certain  to  feel  this  the 
more,  the  deeper  its  knowledge  of  the  modern 
world  of  thought  becomes. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  the 
New  Inner  World  of  Thought  II :  The 
Comprehensive  Challenge  of  the  Factors 
OF  THE  New  World  of  Thought 

We  have  thus  attempted  to  bring  into  clear 
reHef  the  main  factors  in  the  modern  inner  world 
of  thought.  With  each  factor  there  has  also  been 
pointed  out  its  moral  and  religious  significance. 
The  present  is  evidently  no  time  for  despair  of 
spiritual  progress.  But  neither  is  it  a  time  for 
vague  and  indefinite  spiritual  aspiration.  The 
very  nature  of  the  factors  of  the  new  inner  world 
of  thought  especially  demands  honest  and  definite 
facing  of  the  challenge  involved  in  the  new  con- 
ditions. Before,  therefore,  we  turn  from  this 
study  of  modern  intellectual  movements,  let  us 
try  to  put  before  ourselves  in  comprehensive  view 
the  results  of  our  inquiry,  to  see,  for  the  inner 
world    of    thought  —  as    previously    for    the    new 

159 


l6o     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

external  world  —  its  meaning,  the  dangers  and 
problems  involved,  the  qualities  demanded,  and 
the  elements  of  encouragement  to  be  found. 


THE   MEANING   OF   THE   NEW   INNER  WORLD 

I.  When  one  asks,  first  of  all,  in  the  light  of  the 
previous  discussion,  what  this  new  inner  world  — 
of  natural  science  and  evolution,  of  the  historical 
spirit,  of  the  new  psychology,  of  sociology,  of  com- 
parative religion,  and  of  the  later  philosophical  and 
theological  trends  —  means,  he  cannot  fail  to  per- 
ceive that  even  when  its  factors  are  taken  singly, 
the  impression  of  the  deep  importance  of  the  ideal 
meaning  of  this  new  world  of  thought  is  most 
striking.  One  sees  that  an  intellectual  revolution 
of  astounding  importance  has  taken  place,  and 
that,  consequently,  every  human  ideal  has  had  to 
define  itself  anew  in  the  light  of  that  revolution, 
and  to  face  the  critical  question,  whether,  by  this 
intellectual  revolution,  the  realm  of  the  ideal 
interests  has  been  made  narrower,  less  secure  and 
less  significant,  or  greatly  enlarged  and  deeply 
verified.  I  have  tried  to  indicate  reasons  for 
believing  that  these  great  movements  of  the  inner 


OF  THE  NEW  INNER  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT  l6l 

life  of  our  time  have  made  the  moral  and  religious 
life  mgre  sure  and  significant,  not  less  so ;  that 
through  them,  in  truth,  our  vision  has  been  vastly 
extended,  and  the  grounds  for  hope  and  courage 
immensely  strengthened,  quite  beyond  common 
belief.  He  who  measures  the  progress  of  the 
moral  and  religious  forces  of  the  world  simply  by 
the  number  of  avowed  and  enrolled  adherents  of 
the  most  rational  and  spiritual  faiths  of  the  world 
may  doubtless  see  some  clear  progress.  But  that 
measure  is,  nevertheless,  utterly  inadequate.  The 
triumph  of  the  ethical  and  religious  principles  of 
Jesus  is  to  be  found  not  here  alone,  but  still  more 
in  the  half  unconscious  way  in  which  these  essen- 
tial principles  are  steadily  and  increasingly  mak- 
ing themselves  felt  in  all  the  great  inner  as  well 
as  outer  movements  of  our  time.  Let  one  compel 
himself  definitely  to  state  the  inner  moral  and 
even  religious  implications  of  the  modern  scientific 
spirit,  of  the  historical  spirit,  of  the  determined 
attempt  by  psychology  and  sociology  to  reach 
the  laws  of  psychical  and  social  progress,  and  of 
the  resulting  well  nigh  universal  movements  in- 
spired by  the  passion  for  "inner  health"  and  for 
social  righteousness ;  —  to  go  no  further  —  and  one 
will  have  deep  and  abiding  reasons  for  beheving 


1 62      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

that  this  is  God's  world,  and  that  he  is  at  work 
in  every  part  of  it.  For  we  have  seen  that  every 
single  factor  of  this  new  thought  world  of  our  time 
has  a  genuine  moral  and  religious  significance, 
because  each  requires  definite  moral  and  even 
religious  qualities  and  emphases,  and  has,  at 
various  points,  a  real  contribution  to  make  to 
moral  and  religious  thought  and  progress.  No 
one  of  them  could  leave  the  ideal  life  unaffected, 
and  no  one,  when  correctly  conceived,  promises  a 
permanently  disintegrating  influence,  but  rather 
enlargement  and  upbuilding. 

2.  Considered  as  a  whole,  these  elements  of  the 
inner  thought  world  make  plain,  also,  the  pre- 
eminent need  of  time  and  of  thought  for  growth  into 
the  best,  —  time  and  thought  for  the  perception 
of  the  true  values,  for  growth  into  these  values, 
for  the  discipline  of  the  powers  necessary  to 
their  appropriation.  These  revolutionary  lines  of 
thought  themselves  were  made  possible  only 
through  much  thoughtful  reflection  and  unstinted 
effort.  Their  best  results  cannot  be  quickly  and 
carelessly  appropriated.  No  generation  ever  had 
clearer  reason  for  persistent  thinking;  though 
perhaps  none  has  been  more  tempted  thought- 
lessly to  float  upon  the  surface  of  great  movements 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF   THOUGHT    1 63 

made  possible  by  the  thinking  of  others.  We 
need  to  see  clearly  the  ideals  toward  which  we 
are  to  aim.  We  need  to  grow  steadily  into  them. 
We  need  severely  disciplined  powers  for  the  un- 
common tasks  of  our  time.  But  neither  vision  nor 
growth  nor  discipline  is  possible  without  time  and 
thought.  Without  such  persistent  thinking  we 
shall  find  ourselves  only  repeating  new  formulas 
instead  of  the  old,  and  to  as  little  purpose.  One 
belongs  to  a  new  age  not  by  birth,  nor  by  mere 
catching  up  of  its  shibboleths,  but  by  vigorous 
appropriation  of  its  spirit.  There  is  no  cramming 
process  by  which  a  high  civihzation  may  be 
achieved.  Here  is  preeminently  a  demand  for 
moral  and  religious  education  in  the  truest  sense. 

3.  All  these  factors  of  the  new  inner  world,  too, 
as  lines  of  intellectual  inquiry,  require  recognition 
of  the  principle  of  freedom  of  investigation,  and 
therefore,  as  we  have  seen,  must  be  built  upon 
freedom  of  conscience  and  the  principle  of  reverence 
for  personality,  as  a  religious  conviction.  This 
can  be  very  briefly  said;  but  the  meaning  and 
essential  spiritual  unity  of  our  age  are  not  truly 
seen,  except  in  the  light  of  this  perception.  Our 
intellectual  and  religious  worlds  are  essential  to 
each  other. 


164     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

4.  These  great  modern  departments  of  human 
inquiry  —  natural  science,  history,  psychology, 
sociology,  comparative  religion,  with  their  philo- 
sophical and  theological  inferences  —  ought  to  be 
able  to  show,  also,  the  great  principles  which  must 
guide  in  human  progress,  and  the  trend  of  all 
genuine  advance.  They  should  be  mutually  cor- 
rective and  supplementary ;  and  where  they  agree 
in  fundamental  ideals  and  principles  they  should 
give  us  great  confidence.  They  should  bring, 
therefore,  a  clearing  up  of  our  ideas  and  ideals, 
and  increasing  discernment  of  the  laws  involved 
in  human  progress;  and  so  enable  us  to  enter 
consciously,  intelligently,  voluntarily,  and  earnestly 
into  cooperation  with  God's  purposes  in  the  attain- 
ment of  these  ideals. 

5.  The  particular  bearing  of  this  whole  new 
inner  world  on  human  progress  should  be  found  in 
sociology,  if  that  is  correctly  formulated.  What 
does  sociology  indicate  as  the  most  essential  guid- 
ing and  determining  principle  in  human  progress? 
The  answer  might  be  reached  either  through  an 
analysis  of  the  ideal  which  sociology  aims  to  make 
controlling  —  the  social  consciousness ;  or  through 
a  study  of  the  historical  trend  which  sociology 
believes  that  it  can  trace  through  the  centuries. 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 65 

Now  both  the  ideal  of  sociology  —  the  social 
consciousness  —  and  the  historical  development 
which  sociology  thinks  that  it  can  show,  suggest 
the  principle  of  reverence  for  personality  as  the 
fundamental  essential  in  human  progress. 

(i)  For,  on  the  one  hand,  out  of  the  principle 
of  reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  all  the  other 
elements  of  the  social  consciousness  may  he  derived: 
the  sense  of  likeness,  the  sense  of  the  mutual 
influence  of  men,  the  sense  of  obligation,  and  of 
sacrificial  love.  For  he  who  believes  in  the  essen- 
tial value  and  sacredness  of  each  individual  per- 
son cannot  deny  the  fundamental  likeness  of 
men.  Their  essential  likeness  lies  just  in  the 
inviolableness  of  their  personality.  And  that  per- 
sonality which  we  are  called  on  to  reverence  is  the 
outcome  of  an  age-long  process  of  growing  indi- 
vidualization. It  is  no  mere  copy  of  another 
personality,  as  an  atom  of  another  atom,  but  a 
unique  spirit  with  a  flavor  all  its  own.  It  has 
therefore  something  to  give  as  well  as  much  to 
receive  from  others ;  and  this  demands  the  organic 
conception  of  society  —  the  sense  of  the  necessity 
of  the  mutual  influence  of  men.  And  the  elements 
of  the  sense  of  obligation  and  of  the  spirit  of  sac- 
rificial love  grow  directly  out  of  the  essential  value 


1 66     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

and  sacredness  of  every  person.  For  this  makes 
it  plain  that  we  must  accord  to  each  the  right  to 
make  no  less  a  claim  on  life  than  we  ourselves 
make,  and  that  only  a  being  so  priceless  in  value 
can  properly  call  out  limitless  sacrificial  love. 
The  social  consciousness,  then,  would  seem  to  find 
its  unity  in  the  one  basic  principle  of  reverence  for 
the  person,  as  such.  And  sociology  might  be  said 
to  be  aiming  to  bring  about  a  state  of  society  in 
which  this  principle  should  be  absolutely  con- 
trolling at  every  point. 

(2)  A  brief  summary  of  the  historical  trend  of 
the  centuries  suggests  a  like  result.  For  the  his- 
torical trend  discloses  in  the  ancient  period  the 
predominantly  communal  type  of  state  with  its 
emphasis  on  cooperation.  The  modern  period  has 
disclosed  a  like  predominant  —  not  exclusive  — ■ 
emphasis  on  individual  freedom  and  individual 
initiative.  And  we  are  now  confronted  with  the 
necessity  of  bringing  both  cooperation  and  indi- 
vidual freedom  and  initiative  more  clearly  and 
consciously  together,  and  on  a  religious  basis. 
How  can  they  be  organically  united?  Now  the 
ideals  of  cooperation,  and  of  individual  freedom 
and  initiative,  so  suggested,  are  both,  once  more, 
involved  in  the  principle  of  reverence  for  person- 


OF    THE    NEW    INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 67 

ality  as  a  religious  conviction.  For  the  principle 
of  reverence  for  personality  —  the  religious  sense 
of  the  inestimable  value  and  sacredness  of  the 
individual  person  —  carries  the  conviction  that 
society  must  make  sure  that  it  do  not  lose  the  full 
contribution  of  each  of  its  members,  and  must, 
therefore,  punctiliously  guard  the  freedom  and 
initiative  of  the  individual.  But  this  implies  the 
need  of  cooperation  on  the  part  of  all,  and  of  a 
cooperation  that  secures  rather  than  smothers 
individual  initiative.  The  historical  trend  also, 
thus,  looks  to  the  principle  of  reverence  for  per- 
sonality, as  the  essential,  determining  principle  in 
human  development. 

That  is,  the  test  of  the  social  consciousness  and 
the  test  of  the  trend  of  history  seem  to  agree  in 
giving  us  the  principle  of  reverence  for  personality 
as  the  guiding  sociological  principle  in  the  progress 
of  the  race. 

(3)  This  principle,  too,  is  only  a  direct  expres- 
sion of  Christ's  conviction  of  every  man  as  a  child 
of  God.  Is  it,  also,  a  fundamental  ethical  prin- 
ciple, and  one  manifested  by  science,  and  psy- 
chology? It  is  certainly  interesting  to  see  that 
the  ideals,  both  of  cooperation  and  of  individual 
freedom  and  initiative,  are  expressed  in  Herrmann's 


1 68     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

summary  of  the  moral  law  :  "Mental  and  spiritual 
fellowship  with  men  and  mental  and  spiritual 
independence  on  the  part  of  the  individual,  —  that 
is  what  we  can  ourselves  recognize  to  be  prescribed 
to  us  by  the  moral  law."  The  fellowship  we  must 
have,  and  yet  each  must  be  irrevocably  true  to 
his  own  ultimate  inner  vision.  That  is,  a  com- 
prehensive ethical  principle  only  formulates  what 
we  have  already  found  involved  in  reverence  for 
personality.  The  progress  of  scientific  inquiry, 
too,  in  every  sphere  has  required  just  this  com- 
bination of  independence  and  fellowship.  It  may 
be  properly  regarded,  therefore,  as  the  very  spirit 
of  natural  science,  as  also  of  historical  investiga- 
tion. It  is  just  as  truly  the  outcome  of  the  ideals 
of  psychology,  in  its  emphasis  upon  the  whole 
personality.^  That  is,  the  scientific,  psychological, 
sociological,  ethical  and  religious  ideals  tend  here  to 
come  together. 

It  seems,  therefore,  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  the  one  great  challenge  of  the  inner  world  of 
thought  is  the  plain  challenge  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness —  of  the  principle  of  reverence  for  the 
person  as  such.  Specifically,  as  we  saw,  this  in- 
volves the  growing  conviction  of  the  essential  like- 
^  Cf.  King,  Rational  Living,  pp.  236  ff. 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER   WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 69 

ness  of  men,  of  their  mutual  influence,  and  of  the 
value  and  sacredness  of  the  individual  person. 

The  growing  conviction  of  the  likeness  of  men 
translates  itself,  by  the  use  of  the  self  as  key,  into 
the  understanding  of  others.  For  it  alone  insures 
that  better  understanding  and  fairer  interpreta- 
tion of  other  men,  and  brings  the  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  them  as  beings  like  ourselves.  And  it 
insures,  not  less,  a  steadily  deepening  sympathy 
with  all  and  a  growing  faith  and  hope  for  all. 
This  element  of  the  social  consciousness  should 
count  increasingly,  in  the  face  of  class  divisions 
and  closer  race  associations. 

The  sense  of  the  mutual  influence  of  men,  —  of 
the  fact  that  we  are  members  one  of  another  — 
has  passed  rapidly  through  three  stages,  in  which 
men  have  thought  of  this  mutual  influence,  first, 
as  only  inevitable;  second,  as  perhaps  rather 
desirable ;  and  third,  as  simply  indispensable. 
And  no  man  has  entered  fully  into  the  social  con- 
sciousness who  has  not  reached  the  third  of  these 
stages.  We  are  not  simply  to  say:  "We  are 
members  one  of  another,  parts  of  one  whole,  and 
we  must  face  the  fact,  uncomfortable  as  it  is, 
more's  the  pity" ;  nor  are  we  even  to  say  that  it 
is  possible  to  recognize  that  there  are  aspects  of 


lyo     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

this  mutual  influence  that  are  not  without  their  de- 
sirable features.  But  rather  are  we  to  come  into  pos- 
session of  the  clear  conviction,  that  men  are  made  on 
so  large  a  plan  that  they  cannot  come  to  their  best 
in  independence  one  of  another ;  that  they  are  in- 
dispensable to  one  another,  and  that  every  race  and 
every  individual  has  its  own  value  to  share. 

And  the  sense  of  likeness  and  the  sense  of  mutual 
influence,  as  we  have  seen,  both  grow  out  of  the 
still  deeper  sense  of  the  priceless  value  and  sacred- 
ness  of  the  individual  person  —  whether  child,  or 
woman,  or  of  the  other  class,  or  of  the  other  race. 
This  alone  is  that  reverence  for  the  person  as 
such,  that  essentially  involves  obligation  and  love. 
Without  some  recognition  of  this  inevitable  sacred- 
ness  of  the  person,  a  man  has  not  truly  entered 
upon  the  moral  Hfe  at  all.  And  at  its  highest,  it 
is  the  finest  flower  of  spiritual  growth. 

This  trend  of  the  new  inner  world  toward  the 
social  conscience  may  be  said  practically  to  in- 
volve at  least  three  phases:  the  recognition  of  a 
new  standard  of  service;  the  perception  of  the 
demand  for  respect  for  personality  in  all  relations ; 
and  the  prevalence  of  such  a  spirit  of  brother- 
hood as  shall  either  outrun  or  prepare  for  the 
Socialistic  state,  according  to  one's  conception. 


OF  THE  NEW  INNER  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT  171 

The  social  consciousness  means,  then,  in  the 
first  place,  the  recognition  of  a  new  standard  of 
service,  applied  in  all  spheres  of  society,  in  all  rela- 
tions of  life,  and  to  all  individuals ;  the  measuring  of 
every  life  and  of  every  institution  by  service  ren- 
dered ;  the  recognition  of  the  obligation  upon  the 
part  of  all  to  share  their  best,  and  the  certainty  that 
this  sharing  of  the  best  is  increasingly  to  prevail. 

The  application  of  the  social  conscience  means, 
also,  and  especially,  the  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of 
respect  for  the  person  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 
It  is  everywhere  fundamental.  It  is  the  crucial 
test  to  be  applied  at  every  point.  All  social 
abuses  will  be  found  somewhere  to  violate  this 
spirit.  No  small  part  of  our  labor  difficulties 
comes  from  the  attempt  to  treat  men  as  if  they 
were  simply  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  an  indus- 
try, instead  of  recognizing  what  is  due  to  men  as 
men,  to  persons  as  persons.  And  various  kindly 
provisions  of  another  sort  will  by  no  means  make 
good  this  basal  lack.  Even  our  American  record 
of  divorce,  shameful  enough  in  some  of  its  aspects, 
must  be  regarded  as  having  this  element  of  en- 
couragement, that  it  undoubtedly,  often,  bears 
witness  to  a  deepened  sense  of  the  respect  due  to 
personality  in  this  closest  relation  of  life. 


172      THE    MOEAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Again,  the  social  consciousness  can  hardly  fail  to 
mean  such  a  development  of  the  social  virtues,  such 
an  incoming  of  the  true  spirit  of  brotherhood,  as 
shall  either  outrun  Sociahsm  or  prepare  for  it, 
according  to  one's  conception  of  the  meaning  of 
the  Socialistic  goal.  For  there  will  be  practical 
agreement,  on  the  part  of  men  greatly  varying  in 
their  estimate  and  definition  of  Socialism,  in  the 
insistence  that  social  welfare  in  the  largest  sense 
is  to  be  sought,  and  that  true  liberty,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Miss  Scudder,  "consists  not  in  the  license 
of  each  person  to  indulge  desire,  but  in  the  power 
bestowed  by  the  community  upon  its  every  member 
to  rise  to  the  level  of  his  richest  capacity,  by  living 
in  harmony  with  the  Whole."  This  means  nothing 
l^ss  than  that  ideals  that  have  been  thought  of  as 
pecuharly  religious  are  bound  to  come  more  and 
more  into  recognition  as  essential  ethical  and 
social  ideals.  For  more  and  more  it  must  be 
recognized,  to  use  Miss  Scudder's  words  again, 
that  the  "law  of  individual  selflessness  and  sac- 
rifice," is  "the  fundamental  law  of  social  health." 
"In  the  name  of  the  larger  social  self,  of  which 
the  functions  can  only  be  performed  as  the  indi- 
vidual joyously  surrenders  all  claim  to  special 
privilege  "   the  individual  "finds  in  self-subjection 


OF  THE  NEW  INNER  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT  1 73 

his  true    liberty.      He    who    loses    his    life    shall 
find  it." 

Finally,  this  same  unmistakable  trend  toward  the 
social  consciousness  is  certain  to  demand  in  rapidly 
increasing  degree  a  like  spirit  of  conciliation  in 
international  relations.  The  spirit  of  international- 
ism already  manifest  among  workmen  in  all  nations, 
the  great  strides  made  for  the  peaceful  settlement 
of  international  disputes,  and  the  changed  spirit 
which  has,  at  least  in  some  measure,  come  into 
diplomacy,  are  all  alike  indications  of  what  we  may 
reasonably  believe  the  early  future  has  in  store 
for  us.  We  are  surely  approaching  a  time  when 
patriotism  is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  implying  a 
persistent  attitude  of  suspicion,  distrust,  and  hatred 
toward  other  nations. 

This,  then,  at  least,  must  be  included  in  the 
meaning  of  the  new  inner  world  of  thought :  the 
outworking  of  definite  moral  qualities  and  of  defi- 
nite moral  and  religious  contributions;  the  pre- 
-eminent need,  for  our  age,  of  time  and  thought,  if 
it  is  to  come  even  to  intelligent  self-consciousness ; 
the  recognition  of  the  necessary  religious  root  of  all 
these  great  modern  forms  of  intellectual  inquiry; 
the  statement  of  many  of  the  more  significant  prin- 
ciples that  must  direct  in  human  progress,  and  so  a 


174     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

clearing  up  of  our  ideas  and  ideals  in  this  greatest 
field;  and  particularly* the  impressed  conviction 
that  the  principle  of  reverence  for  personaHty  is 
the  essential  guiding  and  determining  principle  in 
human  development.  Modern  education  should 
prepare  men  to  appreciate  and  appropriate  this 
spiritual  significance  of  these  great  intellectual 
movements  of  our  time. 

This  full  discussion  of  the  meaning  of  the  new 
inner  world  should  make  it  possible  to  put  very 
compactly  the  problems  involved,  the  qualities 
demanded,  and  the  elements  of  encouragement  to 
be  found. 

II 

THE  DANGERS  AND  PROBLEMS  INVOLVED 

The  very  fact  that  our  age  has  been  marked  by 
such  enormous  progress  in  knowledge  involves,  of 
course,  many  changes  in  the  conception  of  the 
values  of  life,  and  of  their  relations  to  one  another. 
And  just  because  the  present  becomes  thus  a  period 
in  which  old  ideas  and  ideals  are  breaking  down,  it 
becomes,  at  the  same  time,  inevitably  a  period  of 
dangerous  transition.  So  revolutionary  a  time 
must  bring  its  own  peculiar  dangers. 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD   OF   THOUGHT    1 75 

I.  There  is  to  be  seen,  thus,  first  of  all,  the 
danger  of  the  false  materialistic  and  atheistic  infer- 
ences from  modern  science,  and  the  consequent 
throwing  over  of  all  religious  ideals.  This  danger 
is  the  greater  even  in  the  West,  because  there  is 
often,  on  the  part  of  the  educated  themselves,  an 
ignorance  of  the  real  essentials  of  Christianity, 
that  is  fairly  appalHng.  Our  education  has  been 
many  times  so  one-sided  that  capacity  for  religious 
appreciation  has  seemed  well-nigh  atrophied.  Out 
of  that  perverse  materialistic  one-sidedness,  it  may 
be  hoped,  we  are  escaping.  But  many  still  seem 
to  feel  that  virtually  materialistic  and  atheistic 
conclusions  are  forced  upon  them  by  modern 
thought.  The  West  is  beginning  to  see  more  clearly 
at  this  point,  and  to  understand  that  the  way  to 
idealistic  interpretations  is  as  open  as  ever.  It 
even  believes  that  the  reasons  for  religious  faith  are 
more  soundly  based  than  before.  But  in  the  Orient 
the  situation  as  regards  this  danger  is  more  nearly 
that  of  the  West  of  twenty-five  years  ago.  Edu- 
cated men  in  India  and  China  and  Japan  who  have 
felt  the  pressure  of  modern  scientific  teachings  are 
often  finding  it  very  difficult  to  retain  religious  faith 
at  all.  Not  only  is  it  true  that  modern  science 
tends  to  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  keep  their 


176     THE    MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

older  religious  beliefs ;  but  they  are  inclined  to  draw 
the  inference  that  any  rational  religious  faith  is 
impossible.  The  rehgious  forces  of  the  world  still 
need,  therefore,  clearly  to  reckon  with  this  danger, 
especially  on  missionary  ground,  although,  hap- 
pily, the  means  for  the  solution  of  the  problems 
involved  are  at  hand,  to  an  extent  not  true  even 
twenty-five  years  ago. 

2.  There  is  also  involved  in  the  setting  aside  of 
idealistic  interpretations  the  further  and  naturally 
accompanying  danger  of  a  purely  utilitarian  point 
of  view,  —  the  attempt  simply  to  secure  a  balance 
of  selfish  interests  in  the  progress  of  the  race,  rather 
than  any  ideal  achievement.  There  have  been 
influential,  at  this  point,  not  only  the  half-despair- 
ing feeUng  that  ideaHstic  views  were  being  lost 
perforce,  but  also  the  prodigious  material  advances 
of  our  time,  that  have  tended,  temporarily  at  least, 
to  absorb  the  attention  and  ambition  of  men.  Un- 
der the  glamour  of  these  great  utihtarian  goals,  men 
have  felt  it  almost  possible  to  return  to  the  stand- 
point of  the  ancient  world,  with  its  belief  in  the 
self-sufficing  nature  of  the  present.  They  have 
seemed  to  think  they  might  escape  the  romantic 
"haunting  sense  of  the  infinite"  that  Christianity 
brought,  once  for  all,  into  the  world.     But  it  is 


OF  THE  NEW  INNER  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT  1 77 

impossible.  The  ancient  position  cannot  long  be 
held  by  any  real  modern.  It  belongs  to  his  mod- 
ern consciousness,  permeated  with  the  disquieting 
ideals  of  Christianity,  to  raise  questions  that  no 
utilitarian  culture  can  answer,  and  to  make  claims 
on  life  that  no  utilitarian  civilization  can  satisfy. 
It  is  quite  true  that  men  see,  as  never  before,  the 
economic  conditions  of  righteous  human  relations, 
and  are  more  than  ever  determined  to  realize  their 
ideals  now  and  here  on  earth ;  but  a  merely  utili- 
tarian standard,  we  may  be  confident,  is  not  finally 
to  prevail.  Nevertheless,  whole  multitudes  are 
still  under  the  selfish  utilitarian  spell,  and  the 
danger  is  one  that  the  educational  and  religious 
forces  must  recognize  and  provide  against. 

3.  On  the  other  hand,  in  this  period  of  revolu- 
tionary changes  in  knowledge,  there  is  the  danger, 
on  the  part  of  mistaken  religionists,  of  withstanding 
all  the  newer  knowledge  in  a  prejudiced  conservatism. 
One  can  quite  appreciate  the  feeling  out  of  which 
this  opposition  springs.  It  is  felt  that  the  newer 
views  endanger  the  priceless  interests  of  religion. 
And  yet  such  an  attitude  of  intolerance  brings  not 
only  moral  danger  to  the  individual,  but  a  distinct 
damage  to  genuine  religious  interests.  For  its 
impossible  methods  of  defense  and  its  misrepresen- 


178     THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

tation  both  of  science  and  of  religious  interests 
make  a  rational  religious  faith  impossible.  This 
tendency,  too,  is  to  be  found  not  only  at  home,  but 
on  missionary  ground  to-day.  It  is  the  danger  of 
those  who  pride  themselves  on  their  rehgious 
orthodoxy;  and  it  needs  frank  facing,  especially 
on  the  mission  field.  Religion  cannot  be  saved  by 
a  denial  of  truth  in  any  sphere. 

4.  In  the  inner  world,  too,  as  in  the  outer,  there 
has  naturally  come,  especially  in  the  study  of  many 
ethical  and  religious  systems,  the  sense  of  conflicting 
ideals,  and  therefore  the  feeling  that  none  of  them 
are  authoritative  or  commanding.  From  this  there 
arises  the  great  danger  of  lack  of  all  thoughtful 
discrimination,  and  so  the  further  danger  of  a  false 
tolerance.  Neither  intelligence  nor  religion  can  gain 
by  lack  of  discrimination.  But  many  a  man  prides 
himself  on  his  breadth  and  tolerance,  when  his 
breadth  only  means  that  he  has  put  all  ideals  prac- 
tically on  a  level,  and  his  tolerance  is  not  true 
tolerance  at  all,  but  only  an  indifference  untroubled 
by  convictions.  These  are  the  dangers  of  many 
who  count  themselves  religious  liberals,  and  they 
need  quite  as  frank  facing  as  the  danger  of  intoler- 
ance ;  for  they  mean  spineless  lack  of  all  deep  con- 
viction.   And  out  of  that  nothing  worthy  can  come. 


OF   THE   NEW   INNER   WORLD   OF   THOUGHT    1 79 

5.  The  very  largeness  of  the  achievement,  too, 
made  in  these  great  departments  of  intellectual  in- 
quiry, itself  tempts  men  to  stop  in  these  goals,  which, 
although  they  are  great  and  engrossing,  are,  after 
all,  still  secondary.  Here  too,  that  is,  there  besets 
us  the  peril  oj  the  lower  attainment,  —  the  peril  of  the 
lesser  good. 

The  dangers,  then,  that  the  inner  world  of  thought 
holds  for  our  time  are:  the  danger  of  the  false 
materialistic  and  irreligious  inferences  from  modern 
science ;  the  accompanying  danger  of  a  purely 
utilitarian  view  of  life ;  the  danger  of  religious 
intolerance  on  the  one  hand,  or  of  lack  of  all 
thoughtful  discrimination  and  of  all  convictions 
on  the  other;  and  the  constant  peril  of  resting 
satisfied  in  the  lower  attainment.  This  is  a  defi- 
nite challenge  to  the  ideal  influences  of  our  age; 
for  it  indicates  the  particular  points  at  which 
the  ideal  life  is  threatened  by  the  new  world  of 
thought. 

Ill 

THE   QUALITIES  DEMANDED 

i'.  When  one  turns  now  to  ask,  what  are  the 
qualities  demanded  by  the  problems  arising  in  this 


l8o     THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

new  inner  world  of  thought,  he  must  see,  first  of 
all,  that  there  is  need  of  clear  insight  into  the  always 
difficult  problems  of  a  critical  transition  period,  and, 
particularly,  into  the  problems  of  the  moral  and 
religious  bearings  of  the  theory  of  evolution  and  of 
historical  criticism.  We  have  need  of  patience  with 
one  another  at  both  these  points.  As  another  has 
said  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  "Possibly  no  other 
single  conception  of  the  human  mind  has  produced, 
throughout  so  many  departments  of  knowledge, 
results  at  once  so  profoundly  disintegrating  and  so 
radically  reconstructive.  It  has,  to  use  the  words 
of  Romanes,  'created  a  revolution  in  the  thought 
of  our  time,  the  magnitude  of  which  in  many  of  its 
far-reaching  consequences,  we  are  not  even  yet  in  a 
position  to  appreciate,  but  the  action  of  which  has 
already  wrought  a  transformation  in  general  phi- 
losophy, as  well  as  in  the  more  special  science  of 
biology,  that  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of 
mankind.'"^  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
hypothesis  of  evolution  has  affected  the  method 
employed  in  the  consideration  of  practically  every 
subject  of  human  inquiry.  It  was  inevitable  that 
its  relations  to  moral  and  religious  problems  should 
be  of  deep  significance.     At  the  same  time,  as  we 

1  Kidd,  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  p.  39. 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    l8l 

have  already  seen,  historical  criticism,  too,  in  the 
treatment  of  the  religious  literatures  of  the  race,  is 
essential,  and  it  greatly  affects  religious  conception 
at  many  points.  Present-day  religion  must  face 
the  questions  raised  by  historical  criticism,  there- 
fore, as  truly  as  those  of  the  bearing  of  evo- 
lution. 

2.  In  all  these  problems,  and  in  the  situations 
which  they  disclose,  there  is  plainly  demanded,  in 
the  second  place,  and  in  peculiar  degree,  a  breadth 
of  view  that  is  still  sharply  discriminating,  that  does 
not  end  with  putting  all  ideals  and  faiths  on  the 
same  level,  and  yet  does  not  fail  to  see  the  true  value 
and  contribution  of  each.  The  time  particularly 
demands,  thus,  not  undiscriminating  breadth,  and, 
least  of  all,  moral  and  religious  indifference,  but  a 
broad  tolerance  that  justifies  the  name,  because  it  is 
not  a  tolerance  without  convictions,  but  a  tolerance 
founded  upon  convictions. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  as  we  have  already 
fully  seen,  this  new  inner  world  of  thought,  no 
less  than  the  world  of  external  conditions, 
demands,  above  all,  the  qualities  of  the  social 
consciousness  —  rooting  in  reverence  for  person- 
ality —  as  the  indispensable  moral  conditions  of 
human  progress. 


1 82      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

IV 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT 

The  elements  of  encouragement,  also,  involved  in 
the  great  advances  in  the  new  intellectual  world,  are 
unmistakable,  and,  in  view  of  the  previous  discus- 
sion, may  be  very  briefly  stated. 

1.  We  have  seen  that  every  department  of  this 
great  modern  movement  of  thought  has  involved  in 
itself  a  virtual  moral  and  religious  development;  and 
that  each  of  these  great  departments  of  human 
inquiry  has  large  and  steady  help  to  give  to  the 
moral  and  religious  progress  of  the  race.  It  is 
difficult  to  overestimate  how  much  this  means. 

2.  It  has  been  not  less  plain  that  through  these 
great  inquiries  of  our  time,  definite  direction,  too, 
has  been  given  for  the  moral  and  religious  advance- 
ment of  the  race,  through  the  laws  discerned,  — 
scientific,  psychological,  and  sociological. 

3.  At  the  same  time,  these  movements  of  the 
inner  world  of  thought  have  been  a  great  revelation 
of  the  inevitable  spiritual  qualities  of  men,  and  of  the 
determining  nature  of  these  quaUties  in  human 
development.  They  constitute  a  rebuke  to  our 
timid  faith. 


OF    THE   NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 83 

4.  These  great  factors  of  modern  thought  have, 
also,  endowed  the  present  age,  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Christian  reHgion,  with  its  two  greatest 
characteristics  —  the  scientific  spirit  and  the  social 
consciousness.  For  in  these  may  be  almost  summed 
up  the  intellectual  and  moral  achievements  of  our 
time. 


EDUCATIONAL  APPLICATIONS 

Before  leaving  this  survey  of  our  modern  world, 
outer  and  inner,  with  its  great  needs  and  trends,  it 
may  be  worth  while  to  see  some  of  the  suggestions 
that  naturally  arise  for  specific  moral  and  religious 
education. 

I.  First  of  all,  in  view  of  many  characteristics  of 
the  modern  spirit,  it  may  be  expected  that  the 
religious  education  of  the  future  will  be  permeated 
through  and  through  with  the  ethical,  and  that  the 
inevitable  inwardness  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life 
will  never  be  left  out  of  account.  In  this  sphere 
most  of  all  it  will  be  seen  that  there  can  be  no  gen- 
uine education  without  the  calling  out  of  individual 
insight,  initiative,  and  choice.  Moral  and  religious 
education  will  show,  also,  more  and  more  the  infiu- 


184     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ence  of  the  social  consciousness,  with  its  constant 
respect  for  the  person  in  all  relations ;  and  will 
therefore  train  the  individual  definitely  for  entering 
into  enlarged  social  goals,  for  grappling  with  race 
prejudice,  and  for  the  meeting  of  new  standards  of 
service. 

2.  For  the  formal  education  of  the  schools,  these 
principles  must  apparently  carry  with  them  certain 
plain  demands :  that  both  the  physical  condition 
of  the  pupil  himself  and  his  social  environment 
shall  be  scientifically  examined  and  corrected ; 
that  manual  training  shall  be  introduced  into  the 
schools  earlier,  and  be  open  to  all ;  that  the  train- 
ing of  the  school  shall  be  related  more  definitely 
and  concretely  to  the  social  whole,  to  the  entire 
present  and  later  community  life ;  and  that  the 
need  of  definite  moral  instruction  and  training  — 
given,  however,  through  the  child's  entire  reaction 
—  shall  be  clearly  recognized,  a  training  that  shall 
not  only  call  out  good  intention  and  develop  moral 
backbone,  but  bring  the  pupil,  not  less,  to  an  intelli- 
gent sharing  in  the  community's  best  ideals,  and 
to  a  knowledge  of  social  goals,  laws,  and  methods. 
Some  reports  of  first-hand  observations  in  school 
and  college  make  one  fear  that  a  dispassionate  but 
thorough  investigation,  both  of  public  schools  and 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 85 

of  colleges  and  universities,  would  disclose,  in  far 
too  many  cases,  well-nigh  criminal  carelessness  as 
to  moral  conditions.  We  may  not  leave  it  to  chance 
that  the  child  or  the  growing  citizen  shall  be 
brought  to  self-initiative,  self-control,  consideration 
of  others,  some  sharing  in  the  wisdom  of  Hfe,  and  in 
the  highest  and  largest  community  ideals.  This 
definite  moral  and  religious  training  will  involve 
that  the  problems  of  the  pupil's  moral  life  shall  be 
brought  to  the  pupil  himself,  and  that  he  be  helped 
to  see  them  in  their  concrete  relation  to  his  own 
Hfe  and  volition.  In  bringing  these  problems  to  the 
pupil,  increasing  use  is  likely  to  be  made  of  visual 
methods,  as  in  Mr.  Milton  Fairchild's  public  school 
lectures,  and  in  a  wise  use  of  moving  pictures; 
and  the  public  sentiment  of  the  school  and  of  the 
entire  community  will  be  brought  into  play  from 
the  start.  Methods  like  those  of  some  of  the  best 
EngHsh  schools,  of  the  George  Junior  Republic,  and 
of  the  schools  of  ethics  of  such  institutions  as  the 
Ohio  State  Reformatory  of  Mansfield,  are  certain 
to  come  into  much  more  prominent  use,  in  order 
to  secure  definite  training  for  leadership,  through 
the  wide  distribution  of  responsibility  in  school 
and  community  life.  The  use,  too,  of  careful, 
wisely  adapted  texts  in  moral  education,  by  both 


1 86     THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

teachers  and  pupils,  is  sure  to  extend.  Some  val- 
uable essays  in  this  direction  have  already  been 
made,  and  much  more  is  to  be  expected.  That  the 
moral  training  of  the  pupils  of  our  public  schools  is 
not  to  be  left  to  chance  is  more  and  more  clear,  from 
the  prevalent  tone  of  the  gatherings  of  teachers 
and  of  educational  journals,  and  from  the  for- 
mation of  various  organizations  like  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association,  devoted  to  the 
express  furtherance  of  moral  and  religious  educa- 
tion. 

3.  The  religious  education  of  the  future,  as  dis- 
tinct from  moral  education,  must  seek  to  produce, 
above  all,  that  faith  in  the  eternal  significance  of  life 
and  the  world,  upon  which  we  have  seen  that  all 
moral  endeavor,  too,  must  ultimately  depend. 
The  problem  here  is  like  that,  for  example,  of 
Bruce's  The  Moral  Order  of  the  World,  and  The 
Providential  Order  of  the  World,  —  the  endeavor  to 
see  the  reasons  for  a  rational  faith  in  an  end 
and  personal  purpose  greater  and  higher  than 
our  own.  This  faith  should  not  be  less,  but  even 
more,  possible  to  a  generation  that  has  come 
to  hving  belief  in  a  vital  social  evolution  and 
in  the  trend  of  civilization  toward  enlarging 
goals. 


OF    THE    NEW   INNER    WORLD    OF    THOUGHT    1 87 

The  religious  education  of  the  future  will  be 
inclined,  too,  one  judges,  to  lay  new  emphasis 
upon  the  Reformation  ideal  of  duty  to  God  through 
duty  to  man,  and,  in  a  still  more  intimate  sense  than 
our  fathers  conceived,  it  will  find  the  will  of  God  in 
the  law  of  duty.  The  ethical  thus  gains  the  warmth 
and  concreteness  of  a  personal  Will.  In  the  intelli- 
gent and  voluntary  sharing,  thus,  in  those  social 
goals  that  we  have  come  to  believe  are  permanent 
and  worthy,  we  shall  have  at  once  both  moral  satis- 
faction and  the  religious  sense  of  cooperation  with 
God,  in  his  own  eternal  purposes,  —  the  sense  of 
working  as  well  as  praying,  that  the  will  of  God 
may  be  done  on  earth,  even  as  in  heaven.  Such 
concrete  expression  of  the  spiritual  life  in  deed,  is 
demanded  by  our  very  natures,  if  the  sense  of 
reality  is  to  be  fully  achieved. 

If  religious  education  is  to  come  to  its  full  frui- 
tion, it  must,  also,  seek  to  make  as  definite  and 
specific  as  possible  the  application  of  the  Christian 
spirit  to  the  entire  life  of  man ;  and  in  this  it  will 
try  to  escape  the  domination  of  the  simply  conven- 
tional and  traditional,  and  endeavor  to  try  out 
honestly  and  fully  the  Christian  ideal.  It  will  aim 
to  make  less  true  than  it  is  at  present  Peile's 
statement :  "Now  it  is  a  hard  saying,  but  a  whole- 


1 88      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

some  one,  that  the  great  majority  of  mankind  have 
for  centuries  done  everything  with  the  moral  rule 
of  the  Gospel  except  obey  it." 

Above  all,  the  moral  and  religious  education  of 
the  future,  no  less  than  that  of  the  past,  can  never 
spare  the  power  that  comes,  as  in  no  other  way, 
through  personal  associations  and  embodied  ideals. 
We  seem  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a  determined  attempt, 
on  the  part  of  a  hypercritical  and  rather  unhistorical 
analysis  of  the  Gospels,  not  only  to  make  the  legit- 
imate distinction  between  the  Jesus  of  history  and 
the  Christ  of  developed  Christian  dogmatic,  but 
also  to  rob  men's  lives  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
world's  greatest  Hfe.  Certainly,  we  can  do  nothing, 
finally,  against  the  truth ;  but  let  us  not  deceive 
ourselves  into  thinking  that  any  summation  of  far 
smaller  lives  can  ever  make  good  the  dynamic  of  his 
great  personality.  For  myself,  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  final  scholarly  verdict  of  the  future  does 
not  belong  with  this  hypercritical  school,  and  that, 
however  carefully  we  guard  ourselves  against 
unwarranted  assertions,  the  inspiration  of  the  ideal 
of  Jesus,  embodied  in  his  personal  life,  will  remain 
the  richest  asset  of  the  moral  and  religious  life  of 
the  race. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Lesson  of  the  Historical  Trend  of  West- 
ern Civilization 

As  what  is  actually  going  on  in  the  world  to-day 
is,  plainly,  the  increasing  spread  of  Western  civili- 
zation over  the  world,  if  we  are  to  understand  the 
modern  age,  we  need  clearly  to  see  just  what 
Western  civilization  means,  not  only  through  the 
analysis  of  present  conditions,  already  attempted, 
but  also  by  tracing  its  historical  development. 
Only  so  shall  we  comprehend  it  in  its  genesis.  This 
should  help  not  only  to  clearer  perception  of  our 
situation  and  problems  in  the  Occident,  but  also  to 
a  better  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  the  spread 
of  Western  civilization  into  the  Orient,  and  of  the 
methods  and  spirit  that  should  guide  men  there. 
For  the  contrast  between  the  Orient  and  the  Oc- 
cident is  much  like  that  between  the  ancient  and 
the  modern  periods.^ 

^  I  am  particularly  indebted,  in  this  chapter,  to  Kidd's  Prin- 
ciples of  Western  Civilizalion,  and  shall  freely  use  that  suggestive 
book  for  illustrative  purposes ;  though  I  have  not  adopted  pre- 
cisely Mr.  Kidd's  formulation  of  the  results  of  his  inquiry.     Mr. 


IQO     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Since  we  cannot  survey  the  whole  historical  devel- 
opment of  Western  civilization  to  discover  its  trend 
and  its  underlying,  determining  principles,  we  may, 

Kidd  seems  to  me  inconsistent,  in  so  sharply  setting  the  ancient 
and  modern  civilizations  in  antagonism  at  all  points,  and  in 
representing  the  first  epoch  of  history  as  one  of  the  rule  of  force 
only.  This  makes  the  present  day  antinomy  in  social  progress 
much  sharper,  than  on  his  own  principles  it  could  consistently  be. 
For  if  moral  control  in  evolution  is  to  come  in  at  all,  on  those 
principles  of  simple  natural  selection  which  he  adopts,  this  moral 
control  must  have  what  he  calls  "military  efficiency,"  or  "the 
ascendency  of  the  present,"  as  well  as  "social  efficiency,"  or 
"projected  efficiency."  Or,  in  other  words,  social  efficiency  (or 
projected  efficiency  or  the  ascendency  of  the  future,  or  the  ascen- 
dency of  interests  lying  quite  beyond  those  of  the  present  political 
organization,  as  he  variously  terms  it),  must  have  fitness  to  sur- 
vive or  military  efficiency  from  the  start ;  just  as  Wallace  interprets 
the  evolutionary  significance  of  ornament  in  the  male  when  he  says, 
"The  extremely  rigid  action  of  natural  selection  must  render  any 
attempt  to  select  mere  ornament  truly  nugatory,  unless  the  most 
ornamented  always  coincide  with  'the  fittest'  in  every  other 
respect."     (Quoted  by  Kidd,  Op.  cU.,  p.  63.) 

The  two  great  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  race  that  we  call 
ancient  and  modern  cannot,  then,  be  marked  by  two  utterly 
antagonistic  principles  of  development.  The  differences  between 
the  ancient  and  modern  worlds  are  great  indeed ;  but  the  deter- 
mining principle  of  development  in  the  first  cannot  have  been 
mere  force,  and  the  determining  principle  in  the  latter  be  purely 
moral.  At  bottom  both  must  have  the  same  causes ;  for  we  are 
bound  to  ask,  "Why  is  Western  civilization  prevailing  to-day? 
Why  did  the  ancient  exclusive  state  prove  so  efficient  from  a 
military  point  of  view  ?  Why  did  Japan,  for  example,  take  on  so 
readily  military  efficiency  ?"  The  ultimate  reasons  must  be  the 
same,  or  closely  related,  in  all  these  cases. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    191 

perhaps,  reach  these  more  quickly  by  the  combined 
results  of  three  methods  of  approach.  We  may 
look  at  the  historical  development  from  three 
points  of  view,  to  obtain:  first,  the  suggestions 
coming  from  the  consideration  of  the  more  impor- 
tant contrasts  between  ancient  and  modern  civihza- 
tion ;  second,  the  suggestions  coming  from  well- 
recognized  instances  of  mistaking  at  first  the  full 
meaning  and  proper  application  of  the  principles 
underlying  Western  civilization ;  third,  the  sugges- 
tions coming  from  the  observed  relation  of  the 
fundamental  principles  and  characteristics  of  pres- 
ent-day Western  civilization  to  the  elements  of  the 
social  consciousness. 


THE  SUGGESTIONS  COMING  FROM  THE  MORE  IMPOR- 
TANT CONTRASTS  BETWEEN  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN 
CIVILIZATION 

We  may  well  begin  with  a  summary  statement 
of  the  more  notable  contrasts  between  the  ancient 
and  modern  periods ;  and  then  see  how  they  gather 
around  one  or  the  other  of  two  outstanding  phe- 
nomena: the  institution  of  the  ancient  exclusive 
state,  or  the  coming  in  of  Christianity. 


192      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

I.  What,  in  the  first  place,  were  the  character- 
istic features  of  the  ancient  period  ? 

First  of  all,  the  ancient  world  is  marked  by  "the 
institution  of  exclusive  citizenship,'''  which,  as 
Mommsen  says,  was  "altogether  of  a  moral-reUgious 
nature,"  and  was  built  upon  ancestor  worship.^ 
Out  of  this  institution  of  exclusive  citizenship  may 
be  said  to  grow  practically  all  the  other  character- 
istics of  the  ancient  world.  This  means,  for  exam- 
ple, that  the  ancient  civilization  must  be  regarded 
as  plainly  of  the  communal  type,  as  over  against  the 
modern,  more  individuaHstic  type.  This  domi- 
nance of  the  state  naturally  connects  itself  also 
with  the  ancient  sense  of  the  self-sufficingness  of  the 
present  life.  This,  the  historians  of  philosophy 
have  commonly  set  over  against  the  "romantic" 
element  in  modern  life.  The  modern  feeling  grows 
out  of  what  has  been  called  the  "haunting  sense  of 
the  infinite,"  brought  in  by  Christianity.  It  involves 
the  sense  of  relation  to  principles  which  are  superior 
to  all  that  is  temporal,  and  which  are  the  natural  re- 
flection of  those  great  Christian  convictions  which 
separate  the  ancient  and  the  modern  periods. 

The  absolute  domination  of  the  individual  by  the 
ancient  exclusive  state  suggests  what  is,  perhaps, 

1  Kidd,  Op.  ciL,  pp.  162  ff.,  167  ff. 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    1 93 

the  greatest  moral  contrast  between  the  ancient 
and  modern  worlds  —  that  the  exclusive  state  of 
the  ancient  period  knew  no  reverence  for  the  person 
as  such.  The  contrast  here  is  so  immense  as  to  be 
almost  unbelievable.  The  theory  of  the  ancient 
Greek  and  Roman  state  held,  even  for  the  small, 
favored  body  of  citizens,  that  all  ''should  be 
regarded  as  the  property  of  the  state"  ;  that  "the 
sovereignty  of  the  state  was  absolute,  that  indi- 
vidual freedom  as  against  the  state  was  unknown, 
and  that  the  existing  political  relations  embraced 
the  whole  life  of  the  individual,  the  whole  range  of 
his  duties  and  activities  —  civil,  social,  moral,  and 
religious."  ^  The  total  lack  of  all  reverence  for  the 
person  as  such  is,  also,  to  be  seen,  not  only  in  the 
fact  that  the  actual  Greek  and  Roman  state  was 
founded  upon  slavery,  and  that,  too,  a  slavery  not 
merely  of  barbarians,  but  of  other  Greeks  and 
Romans,  but  in  the  further  most  significant  fact, 
that  even  such  ideal  political  constructions,  as  those 
of  geniuses,  like  Plato  and  Aristotle,  made  slavery 
the  necessary  foundation  of  the  state.  There  is  no 
feeling,  here,  of  the  intrinsic  sacredness  of  human 
life,  and  there  is  no  sense  of  obligation  to  human 
beings  as  such.     In  Kidd's  words,  "To  the  'bar- 

1  Mahaffy,  and  Bluntschli,  quoted  by  Kidd,  Op.  cit.,  p.  180. 


194      THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

barians'  Aristotle  considered  the  Greeks  had  no 
more  duties  than  to  wild  beasts."  In  modern 
civilization  such  exclusiveness  as  in  the  ancient 
state  was  taken  coolly  for  granted  is  simply 
unthinkable. 

It  naturally  followed,  also,  from  the  ancient 
institution  of  exclusive  citizenship,  with  its  complete 
domination  of  the  entire  life  of  the  individual,  that 
in  the  ancient  civilization  in  general  religion  should 
have  reference  only  to  temporal  blessings  and  to 
the  present ;  and  that  a  rule  of  law  is  not  yet  dis- 
criminated from  a  rule  of  religion.  Whereas,  in 
modern  civilization,  there  is  an  increasingly  clear 
discrimination  of  the  ethical  and  religious  from  law, 
custom,  or  political  relation.^  With  the  ancient 
exclusive  citizenship  is  connected,  also,  "  that  almost 
stationary  social  state"  that  is  to  be  contrasted  with 
"the  rapidly  progressing  societies  of  our  Western 
world." 

All  the  contrasts,  so  far  brought  out,  hold,  in 
general,  also,  in  the  comparison  of  the  Orient  with 
the  Occident,  as  might  be  shown  in  detail,  for  ex- 
ample, from  the  history  of  Japan. 

2.  If  we  now  turn  to  some  of  the  outstanding 
features  of  the  modern  age,  certain  other  contrasts 

^  Kidd,  Op.  cit.,  p.  249. 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    1 95 

between  the  ancient  and  modern  worlds  disclose 
themselves. 

Kidd  points  out  particularly  the  different  concep- 
tion of  truth  which  has  come  to  characterize  the  most 
modern  period.  In  Western  civilization,  truth  is 
thought  of,  he  contends,  as  coming  out  in  an  his- 
torical process,  as  "the  net  resultant  of  forces 
which  are  in  themselves  apparently  opposed  and 
conflicting."  The  modern  conception  of  truth 
may  thus  be  said  to  be  a  dynamic  conception; 
whereas,  in  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  periods,  truth 
is  regarded  as  absolute,  and  embodied  in  state  or 
church  or  system  —  it  is  a  static  conception. 
Growing  inevitably  out  of  this  new  conception  of 
truth,  Kidd  sees  the  new  modern  virtue  of  tolerance 
that  involves  a  conflict,  "in  the  stress  of  which  every 
cause  and  opinion  and  institution  is  to  hold  its  life 
only  at  the  challenge  of  such  criticism  and  compe- 
tition as  has  never  been  possible  in  the  world 
before."  ^  This  new  conception  of  truth  and  new 
modern  virtue  of  tolerance  really  correspond  to  the 
principle  of  freedom  of  investigation,  as  based  upon 
absolute  freedom  of  conscience.  This,  in  turn,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  only  an  expression  of  Christianity's 
fundamental  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person 

^Op.  cit.,p.  318. 


196     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

as  such.  It  is  this  demand  for  absolute  freedom  of 
investigation,  and  its  actual  possibility  in  our  time, 
which  have  made  possible,  as  has  been  repeatedly- 
pointed  out,  the  great  achievements  of  modern 
science,  and  have  led  naturally  to  an  age  that  could 
be  called  preeminently  a  scientific  age. 

Now,  all  these  contrasts,  as  has  been  already  suffi- 
ciently indicated,  evidently  group  themselves  about 
one  or  the  other  or  both  of  two  great  phenomena: 
the  ancient,  exclusive,  moral-religious  state,  and 
the  bringing  in  of  Christianity.  It  is,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  exclusive  moral-religious  state  which  gives 
character  to  the  entire  ancient  period ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  the  new  principles  brought  in  by 
Christianity  that  underlie  modern  Western  civili- 
zation. 

3.  The  ancient  exclusive  state.  Let  us  ask,  then, 
first  of  all,  for  the  moral  and  religious  significance 
of  the  ancient  exclusive  state.  Why  did  the 
exclusive  moral-religious  state  come  to  be  the  pre- 
vailing type  in  the  ancient  world  ?  Why  were  the 
ancient  states  all  communal  ?  What  made  this 
type  of  state  survive  and  prevail  ?  What  gave  it 
"military  efficiency"?  Mr.  Kidd,  perhaps,  states 
the  matter  as  compactly  as  it  can  be  stated  when  he 
says:   "There  springs  inevitably  from  the  concep- 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF   WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    1 97 

tion  of  common  descent  from  deified  ancestors  a 
system  of  morality  the  exclusiveness  of  which  it  is 
almost  impossible  for  us  to  fully  realize ;  a  system 
of  morality  in  which  there  is  to  be  distinguished  a 
feeling  of  obHgation  to  regard  all  outside  the  tie 
of  the  resulting  moral-religious  citizenship,  as  not 
only  without  the  pale  of  all  duty  and  obligation,  and 
beyond  the  range  of  even  those  feelings  which  to 
us  seem  to  be  the  outcome  of  a  conception  of  a 
common  humanity ;  but  as  persons  whom  it  would 
actually  be  a  kind  of  sacrilege  to  admit  under  any 
circumstances  as  equals."  ^ 

(i)  This  very  constitution  of  the  ancient  state 
instituted  the  closest  possible  ties  between  its  citi- 
zens, and  gave  to  them  the  conscious  sense  of 
deepest  obligation  to  the  state,  and  the  willingness 
to  sacrifice  for  it.  And  all  this  was  directly  based 
on  rehgious  faith.^  That  is,  Mr.  Kidd  is  surely 
justified  in  saying  that  we  have  represented  in  the 
ancient  exclusive  state  "the  most  potent  principle 
of  military  efficiency  which  it  would  be  possible  to 
conceive."  "We  may  obtain  some  idea  of  the 
peculiar  religious  sanctity  attached  to   the  bond 

'  Op.  cit.,  p.  171. 

2  Exactly  this  consciousness,  it  may  be  said,  in  passing,  has 
prevailed  in  modern  Japan. 


198     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

of  citizenship,  and  of  the  spirit  which  pervaded  the 
fabric  of  the  ancient  state,  from  Cicero's  assertion 
that  no  man  could  lay  claim  to  the  title  of  good 
who  would  hesitate  to  die  for  his  country ;  and  that 
the  love  owed  by  the  citizen  towards  this  larger 
community  of  which  he  was  a  member  was  holier 
and  more  profound  than  that  due  from  him  to  his 
nearest  kinsman."  ^ 

(2)  But  this  most  efficient  mihtary  state  had,  it 
should  be  noted,  a  definite,  avowed,  moral-religious 
basis.  It  is  this  which  led  so  inevitably  to  some 
of  the  strongest  elements  of  the  social  conscious- 
ness, —  to  the  overpowering  sense  of  membership 
one  of  another,  and  of  the  obHgation  to  sacrifice 
for  the  whole.  It  is  exactly  these  qualities  which 
made  this  type  of  state  prevail.  That  is,  it  is 
plain  that,  even  in  the  ancient  period,  "miUtary 
efficiency"  goes  back  to  "social  efficiency,"  and 
plainly  roots  in  moral-religious  convictions.  The 
particular  element  of  the  social  consciousness  here 
emphasized  is  that  of  the  sense  of  mutual  influence 
or  organic  unity  —  that  men  are  members  one  of 
another,  inevitably,  desirably,  indispensably.  Out 
of  this  springs  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  and  the  sense 
of  the  right  of  the  state  to  demand  all  from  the  indi- 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  173. 


HISTORICAL   TREND   OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    1 99 

vidual.  It  is  not  just,  therefore,  to  speak  of  this 
ancient  period  as  one  of  the  rule  of  simple  force,  as 
Mr.  Kidd  seems  to  imply.^  The  efhciency  of  the 
state  in  this  period  is  not  due  simply  to  the  sum  of 
the  physical  strength  of  its  units,  but  depends  on 
the  moral-rehgious  cement.  Even  in  the  ancient 
period,  thus,  the  determining  elements  are  moral- 
religious,  resulting  in  the  definite  social  quaHty  of 
the  sense  of  organic  unity.  That  is,  it  must  be 
admitted  that,  in  the  case  of  the  ancient  state  itself, 
there  is  more  than  the  mere  "ascendency  of  the 
present."  The  very  fact  that  the  ancient  state  is 
''altogether  of  a  moral-religious  nature,"  involving 
willingness  to  sacrifice  on  principle,  shows  that  there 
is  already  here  something  that  transcends  the  pres- 
ent. Moreover,  any  vigorous  patriotism  is,  prob- 
ably, always  more  or  less  consciously  thinking  of 
the  state  as  going  on,  as  developing,  —  is  thinking 
of  its  growing  glory,  and,  therefore,  is  always  more 
or  less  plainly  subordinating  the  present  to  the 
future,  in  a  virtually  rehgious  way.^ 

^  Op.  cil.,  p.  240. 

^  Even  in  the  lower  biological  evolution,  survival  is  never  a 
matter  of  the  mere  physical  force  of  the  individual.  Any  better 
adjustment  to  environment  helps  —  whether  protective  mimicry, 
activity,  health,  cunning,  skill,  intelligence,  better  organization, 
or  superior  social  qualities  —  anything  that  gives  greater  fitness 


200     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

(3)  Now,  among  all  the  various  ancient  examples 
of  the  moral-religious  exclusive  state,  what  deter- 
mined the  survivors  ?  Why,  in  that  great  struggle 
for  national  existence,  out  of  which  have  come  those 
peoples  in  whose  life  the  principles  of  Western 
civilization  are  most  manifest,  and  who  are  leading 
in  its  progress  and  spread  over  the  world,  —  the 

to  survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Moreover,  the  fitness  of 
the  species  to  survive  calls  often  for  the  sacrifice  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  just  here  is  to  be  seen  the  evolutionary  significance  of 
the  phenomena  of  death  and  of  sexual  reproduction. 

Nor  is  it  ever  mere  original  physical  force  that  determines  the 
outcome  in  human  evolution,  else  civihzation  would  have  no  assu- 
rance of  maintaining  itself  against  barbarism.  There  comes  a 
time  in  human  evolution  when  intellectual  development  becomes 
more  important  than  physical,  and  the  physical  is  arrested  — 
through  the  use  of  the  instrument,  intellectually  devised  —  that 
is,  through  ability  to  tap  the  far  greater  forces  of  nature.  Ulti- 
mately, this  becomes  that  progressive  mastery  of  the  forces  of 
nature  through  knowledge  of  law,  which  insures  the  progressive 
conquest  of  barbarism  by  civilization.  When,  therefore,  the 
Afghan  chief  contended  that  Western  civilization  was  superior  to 
that  of  the  Afghans,  only  in  the  possession  of  the  rifle,  he  placed 
his  finger  simply  upon  one  military  illustration  of  the  whole  wide 
range  of  the  use  of  natural  forces,  which  makes  the  scientific  dis- 
tinction between  the  superior  and  the  inferior  civilization.  So, 
too,  there  comes  in  human  evolution  a  time  when  moral  develop- 
ment becomes  more  important  than  intellectual,  through  the 
contribution  of  the  social  consciousness.  In  truth,  the  moral 
needs  constantly  to  accompany  the  intellectual,  for  the  intellec- 
tual development,  as  we  have  seen,  must  have  its  basis  in  the 
moral-religious  principle  of  freedom  of  conscience. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    20I 

Teutonic  peoples,  and  especially  the  English- 
speaking  peoples,  —  why  did  these  survive  ?  what 
made  them  prevail  ?  what  gave  them  leadership  ?  ^ 
The  reason  cannot  be  found  simply  in  the  consti- 
tution of  the  ancient  exclusive  state.  That  origi- 
nally characterized  all  the  struggHng  states.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  either  the  superiority  of  the 
survivors  in  those  very  social  qualities  which  are 
called  out  by  this  type  of  state,  or  some  other 
advantageous  variation.  Now  any  advantageous 
variation  was  most  likely  to  occur  in  that  state 
where  the  individual  had  greatest  opportunity  for 
initiative.  For  that  would  be  the  state  where  most 
inventive  ingenuity  and  skill  would  be  shown.^ 
The  surviving  and  prevailing  states,  then,  in  the 

^  Cf.  Kidd,  Op.cit.,  pp.  157,  161. 

2  Mr.  Kidd's  own  language  implies  that  some  other  principle 
than  that  of  the  exclusive  state  is  necessary  to  account  for  the 
fact  that  certain  of  these  states  prevailed  over  others.  For  he 
says:  "Under  no  other  theory  of  society  could  the  ideal  of  con- 
quest, by  a  people  naturally  fitted  to  conquer,  lead  so  directly  to 
conquest  on  a  universal  scale  "  {Op.  cit.,  p.  174).  What  is  this 
natural  fitness  to  conquer  ?  What  makes  one  of  these  ancient  states 
superior  to  others?  What  is  it  that  in  this  type  of  states,  all 
tending  to  military  efficiency,  makes  one  of  them  most  efficient  ? 
Evolution  suggests  that  it  must  be  the  one  in  which  variation  is 
most  active,  —  where  there  is,  as  has  just  been  said,  most  indi- 
vidual initiative,  —  the  opportunity  for  inventive  skill  and 
ingenuity. 


202      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

modern  outcome,  are  pretty  certain  to  be  those 
in  which  the  struggle  is  as  free  as  possible;  and 
the  struggle  will  be  as  free  as  possible  in  all  Hnes, 
only  where  the  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person 
as  a  religious  conviction  prevails.  For  if  individual 
initiative  and  absolute  freedom  of  investigation  are 
to  make  headway,  they  must  have  their  source  in 
something  that  will  be  regarded  as  inviolable,  — 
that  is,  in  religious  conviction;  as  has  been  true, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  most  modern  period. 

Kingsley  thus  illustrates  the  conditions  of  sur- 
vival, in  explaining  the  superiority  of  the  English 
over  the  Spanish  in  the  struggle  that  ended  in  the 
destruction  of  the  Great  Armada.  After  speaking 
of  the  ingenuity  shown  by  the  English  in  the  con- 
struction of  their  ships,  he  says:  "But  the  great 
source  of  superiority  was,  after  all,  in  the  men 
themselves.  .  .  .  The  '  fiercest  nation  upon  earth,' 
as  they  were  then  called,  and  the  freest  also,  each 
man  of  them  fought  for  himself  with  the  self-help 
and  self-respect  of  a  Yankee  ranger,  and  once 
bidden  to  do  his  work,  was  trusted  to  carry  it  out 
by  his  own  wit  as  best  he  could.  In  one  word,  he 
was  a  free  man.  The  English  officers,  too,  as  now, 
lived  on  terms  of  sympathy  with  their  men  unknown 
to  the  Spaniards,  who  raised  between  the  com- 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    203 

mander  and  the  commanded  absurd  barriers  of 
rank  and  blood,  which  forbade  to  his  pride  any  labor 
but  that  of  fighting."  The  English  were  char- 
acterized by  "fellow-feeling  between  commander 
and  commanded,"  —  no  small  element  in  their 
victory.  That  is,  the  secret  of  the  greater  military 
efficiency  of  the  English  went  back  to  the  spirit 
of  cooperation,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  spirit 
of  individual  initiative,  on  the  other.  It  is  worth 
noting,  in  addition,  that  these  were  both  made 
doubly  effective,  because  of  the  sense  of  moral 
indignation  against  the  cruelties  of  the  Spanish 
Inquisition,  and  the  consequent  sense  that  was 
given  to  the  English  of  being  engaged  in  a  divine 
cause. 

We  may,  then,  perhaps,  assume  that  not  only  a 
marked  spirit  of  cooperation,  but  the  other  element 
of  the  social  consciousness  —  reverence  for  the 
person,  as  seen  in  some  freedom  for  individual 
initiative,  —  was  not  wholly  lacking  even  in  the 
ancient  state,  in  its  strongest  representatives. 
Though  the  other  element  of  cooperation,  of  com- 
munalism,  was,  of  course,  decidedly  dominant. 

(4)  The  great  defects,  obviously,  of  the  ancient 
exclusive  state,  from  the  modern  point  of  view,  lie 
in  the  exclusiveness  of  its  citizenship,  and   in  the 


204     THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

absolute  dominance  of  the  individual  citizen  by  the 
state.  On.  the  one  hand,  those  outside  of  the  exclu- 
sive citizenship  were  not  recognized  as  having  any 
rights  at  all.  The  sense  of  organic  unity  was  con- 
fined to  a  narrow,  exclusive  body.  There  was  no 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  dominance  of  the  individual  citizen  by 
the  state  naturally  tended  to  keep  the  social  state 
stationary,  because  it  shut  out  individual  initiative, 
and  the  resulting  opportunity  for  the  prevalence 
of  new  ideas.  Upon  this  side,  too,  there  was  no 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such.  The  failure  of 
the  ancient  state  on  both  sides,  therefore,  is  moral. 
Such  exclusiveness  of  citizenship,  and  such  domi- 
nance of  the  individual  by  the  state,  were  certain, 
ultimately,  to  lose  their  basis  of  conviction,  as  the 
later  Greek  and  Roman  periods  both  show,  and  as 
is  becoming  more  and  more  obvious  in  the  present 
evolution  of  Japan. 

The  real  power  of  the  ancient  state  lay  in  its 
sense  of  common  origin  and  organic  unity.  And 
these  very  principles  of  likeness  and  of  organic  unity 
are  certain  to  lead,  finally,  to  an  extension  of  the 
privilege  of  citizenship  —  to  an  enlargement  of 
the  spirit  of  cooperation.  Christianity,  it  should  be 
noted,  simply  carries  the  principle  of  organic  unity 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF   WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    205 

to  its  logical  conclusion  of  including  all  men,  and 
founds  it  upon  the  religious  basis  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God.  This  gives  a  basis  like  in  kind  to  that  of 
the  ancient  state,  but  far  firmer,  and  now  become 
universal. 

In  like  manner,  the  ancient  conviction  imderly- 
ing  the  right  of  the  state  so  absolutely  to  dominate 
the  individual  was,  also,  certain  to  weaken.  It 
was  inevitable  that  there  should  increasingly  come 
in,  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  the  state,  a  sense 
of  injustice  and  resentment  of  this  dominance, 
and,  so,  lack  of  heartiness  in  support  of  the  state. 
Weakness  of  the  state  necessarily  follows.  "Mon- 
sieur de  Coulanges  has  pointed  out,"  writes  Hearn, 
"that  the  absence  of  individual  liberty  was  the  real 
cause  of  the  disorders  and  the  final  ruin  of  the  Greek 
societies."  Even  the  great  dominating  Shogun, 
lyeyasu,  could  say:  "The  art  of  governing  a 
country  consists  in  the  manifestation  of  due 
deference  on  the  part  of  a  suzerain  to  his  vassals."^ 
And  for  this  constant  recognition  of  the  rights  of 
the  individual,  again,  Christianity  alone  gives  the 
final  basis  in  that  principle  of  reverence  for  the 
person  as  such,  which  is  only  another  form  of 
Christ's  insistence  that  every  man  is  a  child  of  God. 
^  Japan,  an  Interpretation,  pp.  491,  393. 


206     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

4.  The  Bringing  in  of  Christianity.  When  one 
turns  now  from  the  consideration  of  the  ancient 
exclusive  state  to  those  principles  of  Christianity 
which  tend  to  characterize  increasingly  the  modern 
world,  he  sees  first  of  all,  as  has  just  been  suggested, 
that  Christianity's  great  revolutionary  conception 
is  the  conviction  that  every  man  is  a  child  of  God, 
and  therefore  of  priceless  value,  always  an  end  in 
himself  and  never  to  be  used  merely  as  means. 
That  conviction  pronounces  the  ultimate  doom  of 
all  tyrannies  of  every  kind.  It  is  particularly 
worth  while,  at  the  risk  of  some  reiteration,  to  see 
just  how  vital  this  central  conviction  of  Chris- 
tianity is,  to  all  that  we  most  prize  in  modern 
civilization.  We  shall  not  otherwise  learn  the 
lesson  of  this  great  trend  of  the  Christian  centuries. 

(i)  This  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person  as 
such,  as  a  religious  conviction,  involved,  then,  two 
things ;  first,  the  feeling  of  the  infinite  significance 
of  man's  relation  to  God ;  and,  second,  the  sense  of 
the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of  the  individual 
person.  And  these  convictions  lie  at  the  root  of  the 
great  characteristic  features  of  Western  civilization. 

The  sense  of  the  infinite  significance  of  man's 
relation  to  God  brought  to  men  inevitably  the 
conviction   that    the   spiritual   interests   were   far 


HISTORICAL   TREND   OF   WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    207 

superior  to  the  temporal,  and  that  loyalty  to  these 
spiritual  interests  must  dominate  all  else.  The 
present  life  necessarily,  therefore,  could  be  no 
longer  self-sufficing,  as  it  was  for  the  ancient 
Greek  and  Roman  world.  The  sense  that  religion 
was  the  supreme  factor  in  life  had  fully  come. 
It  is  this  aspect  of  Christ's  conviction,  that  every 
man  is  a  child  of  God,  that  is  first  brought  into 
prominence  in  the  mediaeval  period,  with  its  in- 
sistence upon  the  supremacy  of  religion. 

But  there  followed  not  less  certainly,  from  the 
conviction  that  every  man  is  a  child  of  God,  the 
sense  of  the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of  the 
individual  person.  And  this  contained  in  itself, 
as  in  germ,  the  whole  spirit  of  the  modern  social 
consciousness,  and  has  underlain  centuries  of  social 
evolution.  For,  as  the  Christian  centuries  unfold, 
the  full  implications  of  reverence  for  the  person 
as  such,  —  of  the  sense  that  all  men  are,  alike, 
children  of  God,  —  are  to  become  more  and  more 
manifest.  These  implications,  as  we  have  already 
noted,  will  be  plainly  seen  to  be  the  sense  of  the 
likeness  of  men,  the  sense  of  the  organic  unity  of 
men,  and  the  sense  of  obligation  and  sacrificial 
love  for  all  men.  The  modern  social  conscious- 
ness, that  is,  has  this  definitely  Christian  root. 


2o8     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Religious  reverence  for  the  person  as  such  will 
produce,  not  less  surely,  respect  for  every  man  as 
having  an  indispensable  function  in  life,  —  his 
own  God-given  message  and  mission.  This  implies 
the  necessary  recognition  of  his  absolute  freedom 
to  carry  out  his  ideals,  and  so  of  that  freedom  of 
conscience  and  freedom  of  investigation  in  all 
lines,  that  is  the  very  essence  of  the  modern  scien- 
tific spirit,  and  the  source  of  its  marvelous  triumphs. 

(2)  This  fundamental  Christian  conviction  of 
reverence  for  the  person,  of  every  man  as  a  child 
of  God,  therefore,  meets  both  of  the  moral  weak- 
nesses of  the  ancient  exclusive  state  —  its  narrow 
exclusiveness,  on  the  one  hand,  and  its  absolute 
dominance  of  the  individual  on  the  other  —  and 
makes  possible,  especially,  the  development  of  all 
the  strength  derivable  from  the  principle  of  freedom. 
For  it  abhors  the  ancient  failure  to  revere  the 
person  as  such,  whether  in  the  exclusiveness  of 
its  citizenship,  or  in  the  state  domination  of  the 
individual.  We  simply  cannot  put  ourselves  back, 
in  either  of  these  respects,  into  the  feeling  of  the 
ancient  age.  We  are  moved  by  an  essentially 
different  conviction  —  that  of  the  priceless  value 
and  inviolable  sacredness  of  the  person.  This 
launches  in  human  history  a  movement  that  must 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF   WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    209 

finally  have  universal  sweep,  —  a  movement  "which 
is  to  enfranchise  not  simply  the  slave  and  the  serf, 
but  the  sullen,  long-bound,  silent  peoples ;  which 
is  to  question  not  simply  the  right  of  kings,  but  of 
majorities."  ^ 

(3)  It  deserves  attention,  also,  that  this  Chris- 
tian principle  of  reverence  for  personality  connects 
naturally  and  inevitably  with  that  new  conception 
of  the  truths  which  has  obviously  characterized  the 
present.  For  the  respect  for  every  man  as  having 
his  indispensable  function,  his  own  God-given 
message  and  mission,  naturally  leads  to  the  new 
organic  conception  of  the  truth,  and  to  the  new 
virtue  of  tolerance. 

(4)  This  element  of  the  social  consciousness  — 
the  recognition  of  individual  freedom  and  initia- 
tive —  is  not  antagonistic,  but  supplemental  to  the 
element  of  cooperation  or  organic  unity,  which  in  a 
narrow  field  was  so  strongly  manifested  in  the 
ancient  civilization.  Both  the  sense  of  organic 
unity  and  the  respect  for  individual  freedom  and 
initiative  grow  out  of  reverence  for  the  person  as 
such  —  out  of  the  conviction  of  every  man  as  a 
child  of  God.  The  two  —  cooperation  and  indi- 
vidual   freedom    and    initiative,    or    the    sense    of 

^  Cf.  Kidd,  Op.  ciL,  p.  224.     Cf.  pp.  348,  412. 


2IO     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

organic  unity  and  the  sense  of  the  necessity  of  the 
individual  contribution,  or  fellowship  and  indi- 
vidual independence  —  are  only  supplemental  as- 
pects of  the  one  principle  of  reverence  for  the 
person.  The  fact  that  this  fundamental  Chris- 
tian principle  involves  necessarily  these  two  aspects, 
carries  with  it  the  inference,  that  neither  atomistic 
individualism,  nor  swamping  socialism  or  ancient 
communalism,  can  command  the  development  of 
the  future.  In  fact,  there  is  never,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  most  effective  unity  and  cooperation, 
unless  each  individual  is  making  his  own  com- 
plete, peculiar  contribution.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  all  must  cooperate  to  insure  that  no  lesser 
antagonisms  prevent  the  contribution  to  all  of 
even  the  least  individual.  Many  of  the  finest  per- 
sonalities are  dominated  and  exploited  by  cruder 
souls ;  and  so  the  value  of  their  possible  service 
for  society  is  largely  lost.  This  subtler  but  uglier 
violation  of  personality,  that  threatens  the  highest 
social  development,  can  be  prevented  only  through 
great  common  controlling  principles  and  ideals, 
which  are  religious  in  their  character.  That  is, 
once  more,  the  indispensable  conditions  of  human 
progress,  both  in  its  more  obvious  and  in  its  sub- 
tler aspects,  are  seen  to  be  moral  and  religious. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    211 

Here,  again,  Herrmann's  statement  of  the  funda- 
mental ethical  law  comes  out.  Mental  and  spirit- 
ual fellowship  with  men  is  indispensable,  but  it 
helps  human  development,  just  in  the  proportion 
in  which  it  enables  the  individual  to  be  true  to  his 
own  best. 

The  probability  is,  that  we  have  to-day  reached 
a  period  in  human  progress,  when  emphasis  must 
be  laid  anew  on  the  factor  of  coSperation,  for  the 
very  sake  of  keeping  individual  freedom  and  initia- 
tive and  of  insuring  the  individual  contribution. 
Both  are  obligatory  and  essential.  It  is  a  mistake, 
therefore,  to  regard  such  cooperation  as  antagonis- 
tic to  a  true  individuahsm.  The  peculiar  task  of 
our  time,  at  this  point,  may  be  said  to  be  to  dis- 
tinguish between  those  forms  of  cooperation  or 
state  action  that  would  smother  individual  initia- 
tive, and  those  other  forms  of  cooperation  or  of 
action  by  the  state  that  are  necessary  to  insure 
the  full  expression  and  opportunity  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

In  our  search  for  light  from  the  historical  trend 
of  Western  civilization,  we  have,  thus,  tried  to 
review  the  suggestions  which  come  from  the  more 
important  contrasts  between  the  ancient  and  mod- 
ern periods. 


212      THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

II 

THE  SUGGESTIONS  COMING  FROM  WELL-RECOGNIZED 
INSTANCES  OF  MISTAKING,  AT  FIRST,  THE  FULL 
MEANING  AND  PROPER  APPLICATION  OF  THE 
PRINCIPLES    UNDERLYING    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION 

We  turn  now  to  the  second  portion  of  our  in- 
quiry, —  to  the  suggestions  coming  from  well- 
recognized  instances  of  mistaking,  at  first,  the  full 
meaning  and  proper  application  of  the  principles 
underlying  Western  civilization.  The  very  fact 
that  this  phenomenon  has  so  often  occurred  is  a 
hint  of  the  danger  of  our  own  generation,  and  of 
the  need  of  some  vigorous  thinking,  if  we  are  not 
to  make  a  like  mistake.  For  the  tragic  nature  of 
these  attempts,  in  the  history  of  the  West,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  men  were  bitterly  fighting  the  logical 
consequences  of  the  very  principles  they  professed 
to  adopt.  For,  as  Kidd  remarks  of  one  of  these 
mistaken  attempts  —  that  of  the  application  of 
the  Reformation  principle:  "It  is  remarkable  to 
see  how  profoundly  unconscious  the  human  mind 
remains,  and  is  yet  for  long  to  remain,  of  the 
potentiality  of  principles  underlying  the  result 
which  has  been  accomplished."  ^ 

'  Op.  ciL,  p.  316. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    ^VESTERN    CIVILIZATION    213 

Illustrations  of  these  mistaken  attempts  may- 
be found,  first,  in  the  early  interpretation  of 
Christianity  as  ascetic ;  second,  in  the  later  Catho- 
lic interpretation  of  what  it  means  that  the  spiritual 
transcends  the  temporal ;  third,  in  the  working 
out  of  the  principle  which  underlay  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  and  fourth,  in  the  logical  developments  of 
the  laissez-faire  principle  of  the  Manchester  eco- 
nomic school. 

I.  First  of  all,  the  whole  early  attempt  to  inter- 
pret Christianity  in  ascetic  terms,  however  naturally 
one  can  see  that  it  arose,  mistook  the  meaning  of 
that  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  over  the  temporal 
for  which  Christianity  stands.  Asceticism  could 
not  truly  express  Christianity's  conviction  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  spiritual ;  for  it  meant  flight 
from  the  world,  instead  of  victory  over  the  world. 
And  it  still  taints,  one  fears,  almost  all  thinking  on 
religion,  and  has  made  dominant  a  false  concep- 
tion of  the  saint  and  of  religion.  Asceticism,  in 
fact,  in  its  selfish  seeking  of  individual  salvation, 
was  both  absolutely  contradictory  of  Christianity's 
fundamental  duty  of  love,  and  absolutely  blind  to 
Christianity's  belief  that  love  alone  is  life.  And, 
so  far  as  men  have  escaped  from  the  error  of  this 
earlier  interpretation,  it  has  been  by  substituting 


214     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

Christianity's  genuinely  ethical  conception  of  reli- 
gion for  the  old  ascetic  interpretation. 

2.  The  later  mediaeval  period  disclosed  a 
parallel  interpretation,  in  another  sphere,  of  what 
it  meant  that  the  spiritual  should  transcend  the 
temporal.  Now  the  church  declares  that  there 
must  be  indeed  victory  over  the  world,  and  not 
mere  flight  from  the  world.  But  victory  over  the 
world  is  taken  to  mean  the  absolute  dominion  of  the 
church.  The  contention  of  the  Popes,  therefore,  is 
that  the  church  dominates  the  state,  and  a  return 
is  thus  made  to  the  ancient  situation  of  regarding 
the  rule  of  law  as  identical  with  the  rule  of  re- 
ligion. Here,  again,  a  genuinely  Christian  con- 
ception of  what  spiritual  dominion  should  involve 
is  absolutely  denied;  and  a  kingdom  by  force  is 
substituted  for  the  kingdom  of  the  Spirit  by 
spiritual  means.  The  church,  that  is,  has  yielded 
to  the  temptation  that  Christ  rejected.  The  in- 
evitable consequences  follow  this  substitution  of 
force  for  free  persuasion  of  a  free  individual ;  and 
the  absolute  domination  by  the  church  means  the 
stopping  of  progress  through  intellectual  paralysis. 
"Mr.  Lecky's  somber  description,"  Mr.  Kidd  says, 
"of  the  conditions  of  the  world  as  they  presented 
themselves  throughout  this  period  can  hardly  be 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    21$ 

considered  to  be  overstated.  The  spirit  which 
prevailed  had  produced  a  condition  in  thought  in 
which,  says  Mr.  Lecky,  'the  very  sense  of  truth 
seemed  blotted  out  from  the  minds  of  men.' 
During  these  ages  'every  mental  disposition  which 
philosophy  pronounces  to  be  essential  to  a  legiti- 
mate research  was  almost  uniformly  branded  as  a 
sin,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  most  deadly 
intellectual  vices  were  deliberately  inculcated  as 
virtues.  ...  It  was  sinful  to  study  with  equal 
attention  and  with  an  indifferent  mind  the  writ- 
ings on  both  sides,  sinful  to  resolve  to  follow  the 
light  of  evidence  wherever  it  might  lead,  sinful  to 
remain  poised  in  doubt  between  conflicting  opinions, 
sinful  to  give  only  a  qualified  assent  to  indecisive 
arguments,  sinful  even  to  recognize  the  moral  or 
intellectual  excellence  of  opponents.  .  .  .  The  theo- 
logians, by  destroying  every  book  that  could  gen- 
erate discussion,  by  diffusing  to  every  field  of  knowl- 
edge a  spirit  of  boundless  credulity,  and,  above  all, 
by  persecuting  with  atrocious  cruelty  those  who  dif- 
fered from  their  opinions,  succeeded  ...  in  almost 
arresting  the  action  of  the  European  mind.'"  ^ 

3.  This   claim   to   domination  by   the   Catholic 
Church,  as  it  was  made  in  the  name  of  religion, 
1  Kidd,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  291-292. 


2l6     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

could  only  be  met,  as  was  earlier  pointed  out,  by 
a  religious  principle  —  the  principle  of  the  freedom 
oj  conscience,  as  going  back  to  the  divinely  guaran- 
teed sacredness  of  the  individual  person.  For  the 
Protestant  appeal  to  Scripture  against  the  authority 
of  Popes  and  Councils,  as  well  as  the  demanded 
absolute  separation  of  Church  and  State,  could 
only  involve  ultimately  the  declaration  of  the  abso- 
lute freedom  of  the  individual  conscience  —  that 
there  was  to  be  no  domination  of  the  individual 
by  any  power  or  system,  sacred  or  secular. 

But  this  freedom  of  conscience,  which  was  the 
underlying  principle  of  the  Reformation,  was  not 
at  first  so  understood.  At  first  the  Reformation 
was  interpreted  as  only  the  substitution  of  one 
set  of  doctrines  for  another  —  to  be  regarded  as 
equally  authoritative.  Its  full  scope  was  only  very 
gradually  recognized.  Men  were  slow  to  believe 
that  it  must  carry  with  it,  finally,  absolute  freedom 
of  conscience,  and,  therefore,  absolute  freedom  of 
investigation,  —  absolute  freedom  of  men  to  work 
out  their  inner  ideals.  They  were  still  less  pre- 
pared to  see  that,  ultimately,  it  must  mean  the 
substitution  of  the  religion  of  the  Spirit  for  all 
religions  of  authority,  —  the  setting  free  of  the 
himian  soul  from  all  absolutisms. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    217 

4.  Another  illustration  of  the  mistaken  appUca- 
tion  of  accepted  principles  is  to  be  found  in  the 
working  out  of  the  position  of  the  Manchester 
economic  school.  The  history  of  economic  and 
social  progress  makes  clear  that,  while  the  Man- 
chester school  of  economics  had  as  its  aim  complete 
freedom  of  competition,  the  laissez-faire  policy, 
which,  it  was  assumed,  would  bring  that  full  free- 
dom of  competition,  was  not  securing  that  result; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  as  the  economic  struggle  went 
on,  tended  continually  to  some  form  of  one-sided 
domination.  A  mere  let-alone  poHcy,  it  was  found, 
could  not  give  that  fair  rivalry  which  was  sought, 
between  the  forces  of  labor  and  the  forces  of 
capital,  or  insure  their  cooperation  on  terms  of 
equal  advantage.  A  mere  let-alone  policy  could 
not  give  such  rivalry,  either,  between  industrial 
enterprises,  but  tended  ultimately  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  more  or  less  complete  monopoly. 
That  is,  it  has  become  more  and  more  clear  that 
the  whole  people,  in  the  guise  of  the  State,  must 
come  in,  in  the  line  of  the  moral-rehgious  con- 
victions underlying  our  civilization,  to  secure  and 
to  insure  such  real  enfranchisement  of  all  human 
activities  as  was  sought  by  the  Manchester  prin- 
ciple of  absolute  freedom  of  competition.     That 


2l8     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

is,  reverence  for  the  person  as  of  supreme  value, 
and,  therefore,  as  nowhere  to  be  used  as  means 
only,  it  has  been  seen,  must  come  in  to  secure 
recognition  of  reverence  for  the  person  as  guarding 
freedom  of  individual  initiative. 

It  is  thus  to  be  seen  that  all  these  instances  of 
mistaken  interpretation  of  the  application  of  great 
principles  show  that  the  inevitable  trend  of  the 
historical  development  has  been  toward  the  con- 
scious recognition  of  those  moral-rehgious  con- 
victions which  are  the  underlying  principles  of 
Western  civilization.  Reverence  for  the  person 
corrected,  alike,  the  early  ascetic  interpretation 
of  the  Christian  life,  the  papal  interpretation  of 
spiritual  dominion,  the  intolerant  interpretation  of 
the  Reformation  principle,  and  the  mistaken  in- 
ferences of  the  Manchester  school. 

Ill 

SUGGESTIONS  COMING  FROM  THE  RELATION  OF  THE 
FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  AND  CHARACTERIS- 
TICS OF  PRESENT-DAY  WESTERN  CIVILIZATION  TO 
MORAL-RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS 

But  we  may  also  be  helped  to  discover  the  trend 
of  the  historical  development  in  the  West,  and  its 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    219 

underlying  moral  conditions,  by  seeing  the  relation 
in  which  fundamental  principles  and  characteris- 
tics of  our  present-day  Western  civilization  stand 
to  moral-religious  convictions.  In  general,  that 
relation  can  be  expressed  in  a  sentence :  the  prin- 
ciples and  characteristics  of  present-day  Western 
civilization  cannot  be  justified  as  first  principles, 
but  only  as  inferences  from  great  moral-religious 
convictions. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  we  have  already  seen  how 
close  and  inevitable  is  the  connection  in  which  the 
new  conception  of  truth  and  the  consequent  new 
virtue  of  toleration  —  which  Kidd  makes  absolutely 
basic  in  the  astounding  progress  of  recent  Western 
civilization  ^  —  stand  to  the  Christian  conviction 
of  reverence  for  the  person,  as  expressed  in  the 
Reformation  principle  of  freedom  of  conscience 
and  the  resulting  freedom  of  investigation.  Kidd 
does  not  overstate  the  fact  when  he  says:  "The 
principles  of  intellectual  tolerance,  just  as  the 
principles  of  religious  tolerance  and  —  as  we  shall 
see  directly  —  the  principles  of  political  tolerance, 
can  only  be  held,  in  the  last  resort,  as  a  conviction 
of  the  religious  consciousness."  ^ 

1  Cf.  Op.  cit.,  pp.  318,  332,  337,  363,  and,  especially,  397. 

2  Op.  cit.,  p.  363. 


220     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

2.  In  the  same  way  Kidd  points  out  that  "the 
most  fundamental  political  doctrine  of  modern 
democracy,"  'Hhe  native  equality  of  all  men,"  with 
its  accompanying  inference  of  "natural  rights," 
was  not  originally  regarded  as  a  first  principle  at 
all,  but  as  a  corollary  from  a  religious  principle.^ 
And  the  real  meaning  of  the  "native  equality  of 
men"  is  better  expressed  in  Christianity's  principle 
of  reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  because  every 
man  is  recognized  as  a  child  of  God,  and  as,  there- 
fore, of  priceless  value,  and  nowhere  to  be  used  as 
mere  means  for  another. 

3.  So,  too,  universal  suffrage,  or  the  wide  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise,  which  is  a  recent  and  quite 
exceptional  political  phenomenon  and  something 
still  felt  by  many  to  be  quite  absurd,  finds  its 
justification  not  in  some  principle  of  mere  political 
policy,  but  in  this  same  moral-religious  conviction 
of  reverence  for  the  individual  person  as  such. 
It  expresses,  half  unconsciously,  the  conviction 
that  the  State  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  honest 
reaction  of  even  its  least  citizen.  And,  in  spite  of 
all  prepossessions  to  the  contrary,  the  extension 
of  the  franchise,  in  general,  has  proved  mightily 
effective.^ 

1  Cf.  op.  cit.,  pp.  107  ff.  2  Cf.  Op.  cit.,  pp.  367  ff. 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    221 

4.  Practically  the  same  thing  must  be  said  for 
the  principles  of  Western  Liberalism  as  a  whole. 
They  are  political  in  their  sphere,  but  not  in  their 
origin.  They  are  ultimately  based  on  moral  and 
religious  convictions.  They  express  the  demands 
of  an  advancing  conscience,  and  they  have  involved 
at  every  stage  much  individual  sacrifice.  Mr. 
Kidd  quotes  another  as  saying  of  England :  We 
forget  "the  tremendous  struggles  that  were  needed 
before  the  crust  of  sluggishness  and  prejudice  could 
be  broken  through ;  the  lives  willingly  sacrificed, 
the  careers  ruined,  the  fortunes  flung  away,  the 
imprisonment  and  dragooning,  the  ostracism  and 
social  persecution  readily  accepted  before  a  Liberal 
party  in  the  modern  sense  could  come  into  exist- 
ence." He  adds:  "No  fact  has  left  a  more  last- 
ing mark  on  the  English  mind  in  its  relation  to 
politics  than  this  deep-seated  conviction  that 
Western  Liberalism  as  a  political  creed  is,  in  the 
last  resort,  a  creed,  not  of  ease  and  of  conscious 
political  Utilitarianism,  but  of  sacrifice.  .  .  .  This 
is  the  ultimate  cause  why  the  meaning  of  Modern 
Liberalism  in  England  and  the  United  States 
goes  far  deeper  than  political  forms  and  institu- 
tions." 1 

1  Cf.  op.  ciL,  pp.  375,  376. 


222      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

5.  Still  more  obvious  must  it  be,  that  that  whole 
movement  which  has  made  the  recent  past  a 
period  of  "  the  general  enfranchisement  of  all  the 
conditions  and  forms  of  human  activity,"  —  "the 
era  of  the  emancipation  of  creeds  and  of  commerce, 
of  industry  and  of  thought,  of  individuals,  of 
classes  and  of  nationalities"  —  goes  back,  once 
more,  to  the  religious  principle  of  freedom  of  con- 
science, rooting  in  reverence  for  personality.  And 
that  enfranchisement  must  still  go  forward,  if  the 
progress  of  the  race  is  to  continue. 

6.  It  must  be  even  more  plain,  that  those  great 
moral  ideals  that  separate  our  civilization  by  so 
immense  an  interval  from  the  Greek  state  at  its  best, 
have  their  source  in  Christianity's  spirit  of  hu- 
manity. The  Christian  principle  of  reverence  for 
the  person  as  such  forever  divides  here  the  ancient 
and  the  modern. 

7.  If  one  still  further  asks  as  to  the  relation  of 
these  moral-religious  principles  to  the  tremendous 
recent  advances  of  Western  civilization,  he  must  see 
that  something  more  than  mere  political  national- 
ism has  been  here  at  work.  In  their  scientific 
aspect,  these  advances,  of  course,  root  in  that 
freedom  of  investigation,  whose  moral-religious 
genesis  we  have  already  so  often  traced.     In  their 


HISTORICAL   TREND    OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    223 

political  and  national  aspect,  they  root  in  those 
principles  of  democracy,  which  we  have  also  seen 
require  finally  a  moral-religious  basis.  The  deep 
significance  of  the  method  of  party  government, 
for  example,  is  to  be  seen  only  in  the  fact  that  it 
provides  continuously  for  constant  and  tolerant 
conflict  of  ideas. ^ 

We  seem,  thus,  to  be  led  to  the  conclusion,  that 
the  fundamental  principles  and  characteristics  of 
our  present-day  Western  civilization  do  root  in- 

1  Cf.  Kidd,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  356  ff.  In  this  whole  question  of  the 
trend  of  history,  we  should  clearly  see  that  it  is  entirely  conceiv- 
able that  there  should  be  no  particular  progress  in  human  history 
on  earth.  It  is  quite  possible  to  think  of  the  earthly  life  of  men, 
as  Lotze  {The  M icrocosmiis ,  Vol.  II,  p.  171)  points  out,  as  only  a 
preliminary  stage  of  training,  in  which  each  man  virtually  starts 
from  the  same  point.  And  if  progress  is  recognized,  still  it  is 
plain  that  the  preceding  generations  do  not  share  in  its  gains. 
All  their  sacrifices  and  struggles  and  toils  avail  nothing  to  give 
them  aught  of  this  final  consummation  of  human  history,  except 
upon  the  supposition  of  the  immortality  of  all,  and  their  con- 
sequent real  sharing,  in  some  possible  sense,  in  the  gains  of  civ- 
ilization. There  is,  strictly,  no  such  thing  as  "the  education 
of  the  human  race."  But,  while  it  is  thus  philosophically  con- 
ceivable that  human  history  should  show  no  real  progress,  any 
deep  study  of  that  history  makes  it  difficult  to  doubt  the  fact  of 
some  advance,  and  the  extraordinary  significance  of  the  moral- 
religious  convictions  of  the  social  consciousness,  as  underlying 
and  determining  the  progress  of  our  Western  civilization.  The 
trend  seems  unmistakable,  and  the  conditions  of  progress  seem 
clear. 


224     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

evitably  in  moral-religious  convictions.  The  out- 
come, then,  in  all  these  lines  of  inquiry  into  the 
historical  trend  of  Western  civilization  corresponds 
to  the  results  reached  in  our  analysis  of  the  present 
conditions  of  our  civilization,  external  and  inner. 

8.  Before  we  leave  this  study  of  the  historical 
trend  of  Western  civilization,  it  should  be  em- 
phatically said,  that  this  result  does  not  mean  the 
bringing  in  of  a  soft  and  flabby  and  sentimental 
civilization,  but,  rather,  one  in  which  the  virtues 
which  have  always  underlain  "military  efficiency" 
are  continuously  demanded  —  courage,  grit,  will, 
cooperation,  sacrifice,  individual  initiative,  inven- 
tive power  to  use  the  forces  of  nature,  moral  indig- 
nation, and  religious  faith.  Let  us  note  some  of 
the  considerations  which  make  this  certain. 

First  of  all,  it  should  be  obvious  that  this  period 
of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  human  spirit  from 
all  dominations  must  unavoidably  mean,  that  the 
rivalry  and  the  struggle  are  as  unceasing  as  is 
the  struggle  of  political  parties  under  a  system  of 
party  government.  This  is  the  very  condition  of 
progress.  This  rivalry,  too,  must  grow  intenser 
with  growing  freedom.  For  the  absolute  freedom 
of  the  individual  implies  that  every  institution 
and   opinion   must  be   perpetually   challenged  by 


HISTORICAL   TREND   OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    225 

criticism,  —  by  the  severest  testing ;  and  it  de- 
mands, as  we  have  seen,  the  overthrow  of  all 
absolutisms.  Such  a  situation  calls  for  much  hard 
fighting  for  long  years  to  come.  The  oppositions 
of  the  obstinate  conservative  and  the  insistent 
radical  are  needed  to  insure  the  unwearied  testing 
of  all  that  claims  the  support  of  the  advancing 
civilization. 

Moreover,  the  very  fact  that  the  fundamental 
principles  of  progress  are  moral  and  religious  — 
never  merely  political,  economic,  or  those  of  selfish 
policy  —  requires  the  incessant  championing  of 
these  principles  at  any  sacrifice ;  for  selfishness  will 
be  always  against  them.  This  demands  a  courage 
that  is  not  merely  nor  chiefly  military,  but  even 
more  difficult  to  show. 

We  may  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact,  either, 
that  these  final  principles  of  Western  liberalism 
are  only  half  believed  by  many  of  those  who  avow 
them.  How  many  Liberals  are  genuinely  liberal, 
even  in  conviction,  to  say  nothing  of  action? 
how  many  Democrats  are  genuinely  democratic  ? 
how  many  Christians  genuinely  Christian?  how 
many  Protestants  genuinely  Protestant  ?  It  is 
vastly  depressing,  at  times,  to  find  to  how  small  a 
degree  many  have  entered  into  the  meaning  of  the 


226     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

causes  they  avow.  The  truth  is,  that  many  really 
accept  only  certain  external  results  and  gains  of 
liberal  opinions,  and  do  not  really  understand  or 
believe  in  the  underlying  principles,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  disown  them.  The  superficial  followers 
of  a  cause  are  often  its  worst  foes.  There  is 
thus  constantly  needed,  men  who  shall  stand  in- 
flexibly for  the  principles  of  freedom,  who  shall 
never  yield  on  questions  of  human  rights,  but  shall 
engage  in  constant  war  on  tyrannies. 

The  worst  of  these  tyrannies,  too,  —  those  of 
personal  domination  and  exploitation,  —  it  is  to 
be  noted,  cannot  be  reached  except  through  the 
control  of  the  moral-religious  convictions,  growing 
out  of  reverence  for  the  person.  These  principles, 
therefore,  peculiarly  need  to  be  consciously,  intelli- 
gently, and  avowedly  taken  on  by  all  individuals, 
if  the  real  victory  of  human  progress  is  to  be  won. 
How  long  a  fight  must  precede  such  a  victory  ! 

The  ultimate  reasons  for  the  principles  of  West- 
ern civilization,  moreover,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
not  on  the  surface  to  be  glibly  and  easily  defended. 
They  lie  deep ;  and  on  this  account,  also,  the 
battle  for  them  must  be  fought  over  and  over  for 
long  generations  and  for  every  individual. 

It  is,  also,  true,  that  in  these   social  processes, 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION    227 

as  well  as  in  the  personal  moral  struggle,  there  is 
what  Lotze  has  called  "a  morally  advantageous 
deficiency  in  moral  insight."  Just  as  in  the 
growth  of  the  individual,  so  in  the  progress  of  so- 
ciety, the  right,  the  unselfish,  the  sacrificial  course 
—  that  does  not  say,  "After  us  the  deluge,"  but 
looks  to  the  good  of  coming  generations  —  cannot 
seem  immediately  profitable  or  advantageous.  It 
cannot  be  chosen  simply  on  grounds  of  selfish 
prudential  calculation.  The  moral-religious  con- 
victions of  the  social  consciousness,  therefore,  seem 
to  become  efficient  forces  for  progress  only  in  this 
way.  At  each  step  of  progress  there  is,  first,  on 
the  part  of  the  thoughtful,  a  growing  sense  of  con- 
tradiction between  the  social  facts,  in  some  matter, 
and  accepted  moral  principles,  —  a  growing  sense 
of  moral  dualism  and  of  self-stultification  in  pas- 
sively yielding  to  the  situation.  This  drives  certain 
men  to  make  the  needed  change,  though  it  do  not 
profit.  For  example,  men  may  say :  "We  will  not 
base  our  success,  in  commercial  rivalry,  upon  the 
exploitation  of  women  and  children  or  upon  deny- 
ing to  the  laborer  a  man's  real  life."  The  deter- 
mination is  carried  out,  perhaps  at  great  sacrifice 
at  first;  but  in  the  end  it  proves  unexpectedly 
efficient,  insuring  greater  progress.     This  must  be 


2  28     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  result,  in  general,  if  we  are  to  be  able  to  keep 
finally  our  faith  in  the  morality  of  the  universe; 
but  it  does  not  so  seem  at  first,  and  it  often  does 
not  so  work  at  first. 

It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  the  setting  free, 
through  the  present-day  scientific  and  economic 
development,  of  such  tremendous  forces  of  nature 
and  powers  of  wealth,  may  put  immense  possibilities 
for  evil  into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men ;  and 
this,  of  course,  if  the  race  is  to  progress,  must  be 
constantly  fought  and  prevented.  Here  again  there 
is  call  for  the  fighting  virtues. 

The  considerations,  thus  briefly  reviewed,  may 
suffice  to  show  that  we  need  have  no  anxiety  lest 
civilization  should  be  entering  on  a  weakly  senti- 
mental stage.  Justice  and  truth  and  absolute 
loyalty  to  reverence  for  personality  are  no  revela- 
tions of  weakness,  nor  are  they  sources  of  weak- 
ness. There  will  be  constantly  required  all  that  is 
worthy  in  the  fighting  virtues. 

9.  But  we  may  well  definitely  face  the  question, 
whether  we  may  reasonably  expect  the  forces  of 
righteousness  finally  to  prevail.  What  assurance  is 
there  that,  not  the  unscrupulous,  but  the  men  of 
the  righteous  purpose  will,  in  the  long  run,  control 
the  enormous  forces  of  nature  and  of  wealth,  that 


HISTORICAL   TREND   OF    WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    229 

our  modern  world  has  produced,  —  that  right  will 
make  might?  The  question  is  worthy  a  careful 
answer  ;  for  it  may  help  to  make  still  more  sure  the 
inevitable  connection  of  righteousness  with  human 
progress.  What  are  the  grounds  of  assurance? 
They  can  be  very  briefly  suggested. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  already  seen  that 
military  efficiency,  even  in  the  ancient  period, 
required  a  moral-religious  basis. 

Moreover,  barbarism,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has 
long  been  unable  to  stand  against  civilization,  ex- 
cept where  this  civilization  had  failed  in  ultimate 
moral  qualities  from  within. 

Those  peoples,  too,  who  are  to-day  most  con- 
sciously and  fully  acting  upon  these  great  moral- 
religious  convictions  of  the  social  consciousness, 
are,  in  truth,  leading  in  the  present  world  struggle. 

The  qualities,  also,  for  which  military  efficiency 
calls,  point  in  the  same  direction.  First  of  all, 
self-control  is  required ;  for  self-control  is  the 
prime  condition  of  the  most  advantageous  use  of 
power  of  any  kind.  To  self-control  must  be 
added,  obviously,  courage,  grit,  will,  cooperation 
or  team  work,  sacrifice,  and  individual  initiative, 
and,  therefore,  scientific  discovery  and  power 
to   use  the  forces   of    nature.     And,   as  spiritual 


230     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

dynamic,  moral  indignation  and  religious  faith  — 
the  belief  that  the  universe  is  on  the  side  of 
the  will  in  its  struggle  —  have  great  military  effi- 
ciency, in  the  case  of  a  righteous  cause.  All 
these  qualities  show  that,  in  the  long  run,  the 
righteous  nation  or  civilization,  in  a  righteous  cause, 
can  hardly  possibly  fail  to  prove  the  better  fighters. 

Moreover,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  civilization 
of  the  military  conquerors  being  really  vanquished, 
ultimately,  by  the  higher  civilization  of  the  con- 
quered. 

It  must  be,  also,  clearly  recognized  that  "peace 
at  any  price"  is  not  a  truly  moral  goal.  The 
superior  civilization  may  not  allow  itself  to  go 
down  before  the  inferior.  It  may  not  passively 
yield.  The  righteous  man  or  nation  may  not 
refuse  to  champion,  at  all  cost,  the  cause  of  the 
weak  or  oppressed.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  Jesus 
came  to  send  "not  peace  but  a  sword."  One 
should  have  no  faith  in  the  principle  that  war  is  a 
perpetual  moral  necessity  for  the  world ;  but, 
nevertheless,  the  individual,  the  nation,  the  civili- 
zation must  do  all  that  love  for  man  demands,  but 
only  that.  That  is  the  demand  of  morals,  of 
religion,  of  Christianity;  and  that  demand  may 
require  fighting ;  but  it  offers  no  defense  for  war  of 


HISTORICAL    TREND    OF    WESTERN    CIVILIZATION     23 1 

any  other  kind.  Not  the  persistence  of  war,  there- 
fore, is  the  requirement,  but  the  persistent  need  of 
the  fighting  virtues. 

Indeed,  the  whole  fear  that  a  righteous  civiliza- 
tion, permeated  with  the  convictions  of  the  social 
consciousness,  is  intrinsically  weak,  seems  to  be  the 
outgrowth  of  a  false  conception  both  of  goodness  and 
of  religion.  Even  so  clear-sighted  a  man  as  Mr. 
Courtney,  for  example,  denies  that  the  exceptionally 
good  man  could  be  a  hero  of  drama,  and  the  reasons 
seem  to  him  to  be  obvious.  "In  the  first  place, 
the  drama  dealt  with  action  and  the  saint  was 
passive.  In  the  second  place,  the  drama  dealt  with 
emotions,  and,  ex  hypothesi,  the  saint  was  a  man 
who  had  subdued  emotion.  In  the  third  place, 
what  an  audience  looked  for  in  a  hero  was  an  exhi- 
bition of  mastery,  of  force,  of  something  which 
would  engage  their  interest  and  make  the  hero 
significant."  ^  That  is  to  say,  moral  and  religious 
achievement  is  here  conceived  of  as  passive  and 
negative,  unemotional,  and  without  force  or  mastery 
or  interest.  It  would  be  difficult  more  completely 
to  caricature  genuine  character,  and  especially 
the  Christian  religious  ideal ;  although  this  descrip- 
tion might  fairly  represent  certain  ascetic  and 
1  Cf.  Kidd,  Op.  cit.,  p.  153. 


232     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

oriental  religious  types.  In  the  first  place,  what 
is  meant  by  saying  that  the  saint  is  passive  ? 
Certainly,  from  Christ's  point  of  view,  the  truly 
religious  man  is  not  passive,  but  must  evince  in  all 
relations  an  outgoing,  ministering,  sacrificial  love. 
Mention  is  often  made  of  "the  passive  virtues"; 
but  a  very  little  attempt  to  practice  them  will 
show  that  they  mean  much  more  than  mere  pas- 
sivity. So,  too,  what  is  meant  by  saying  that  the 
saint  is  a  man  who  has  "subdued  emotion"? 
Apparently  it  is  assumed  that  that  implies  that 
the  saint  is  a  man  without  emotion,  which  would 
mean  that  he  was  not  more  but  less  a  man. 
Whereas  the  true  subduing  of  emotion  must  involve 
that  he  has  emotion  as  a  mighty  force  under  con- 
trol, and  is  capable  of  mighty  indignations  and 
mighty  enthusiasms.  And,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  Christ,  once  more,  if  he  is  not  capable  of  such 
indignations  and  enthusiasms,  he  is  no  true  saint. 
In  like  manner,  it  seems  to  be  assumed  that  the 
genuinely  moral  and  religious  man  cannot  give  the 
impression  of  force  and  mastery,  and  so  cannot  be 
interesting,  A  college  senior  once  wrote  an  essay 
on  the  subject,  Is  Goodness  Interesting?  And  that 
is  a  very  interesting  question ;  for,  if  goodness  is 
not    finally    interesting,  —  enlisting    all    our    best 


HISTORICAL   TREND   OF   "WESTERN   CIVILIZATION    233 

powers,  —  it  will  not  long  or  truly  retain  our  devo- 
tion. "  Is  goodness  interesting  ?  "  Well,  Goodness 
knows  that  goodness  is  not  interesting,  if  goodness  is 
simply  negative,  —  cutting  certain  things  off  and 
emptying  certain  things  out;  though  even  those 
processes  are  by  no  means  easy.  But  if  goodness 
means  the  taking  on  of  mighty  indignations  and 
mighty  enthusiasms ;  enhstment,  heart  and  soul,  in 
the  great  causes ;  throwing  oneself  with  conquering 
faith  into  the  triumphant  purposes  of  God  himself 
in  the  progress  of  his  Kingdom ;  —  then,  nothing 
on  earth  is  so  interesting  as  goodness.  And  this, 
one  judges,  is  Christ's  conception  of  goodness. 

The  self-surrender  for  which  he  calls  is  not  that 
of  simple  passive  yielding,  or  of  mere  negation,  but 
demands  that  commitment  of  self  to  the  will  of 
God,  that  involves  the  highest  self-assertion,  and 
the  positive  taking  on  of  the  mighty  on-going  pur- 
poses of  God  himself.  There  is  scope  for  the  exhi- 
bition of  all  possible  force  and  mastery,  and  there  is 
no  danger  that  such  goodness  will  be  uninteresting. 

If,  then,  ''military  efficiency"  means  something 
more  than  the  bullying  use  of  brute  force,  then  the 
righteous  nation,  with  the  social  consciousness  at 
its  foundation,  has  it  and  may  count  upon  it.  It 
does  not  depend  on  stirring  the  war  spirit,  or  using 


234     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

military  methods  with  children ;  far  from  it.  For 
what  is  needed  is  not  a  military  machine,  but  an 
inevitably  prevailing  type  of  civilization  —  in- 
evitably prevailing  because  it  roots  in  moral  pur- 
pose, that  has  everywhere  worked  itself  out  to  full 
expression. 

Our  whole  study  of  the  historical  trend  of  West- 
ern civilization  seems,  then,  to  mean  two  things: 
first,  that  the  great  fundamental  conditions  of 
human  progress  lie  in  moral-religious  convictions, 
particularly  in  the  sway  of  the  Christian  principle 
of  reverence  for  the  person  as  such ;  second,  that 
the  trend  of  civilization  is  so  far  from  entering 
upon  a  soft  and  flabby  and  sentimental  stage,  that 
it,  rather,  requires,  particularly  from  all  who 
would  be  leaders,  the  most  virile  quahties,  —  quali- 
ties that  shall  enable  them,  not  only  to  fight  against 
tyrannies,  but  determinedly  to  enter  intelHgently, 
unselfishly,  and  aggressively  into  the  great  on-going 
purposes  of  God  in  the  progress  of  the  race.  The 
men  who  are  to-day  in  dead  earnest  in  that  deter- 
mination are  not  likely  themselves  to  feel  any  need 
of  a  "moral  equivalent  for  war,"  however  much 
they  may  recognize  its  need  for  those  who  are 
willing  self-indulgently  to  settle  down  to  the  easier 
material  conditions  of  our  time. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  Our  Own 
National  Life  I:    The  New  Puritanism 

The  outcome  of  our  analysis  of  present-day 
conditions  and  of  the  historical  trend  plainly 
brings  a  moral  and  religious  challenge  to  our  own 
national  life. 

As  a  leader  in  Western  civilization,  as  an  inheritor 
of  both  English  and  American  traditions,  and  as 
seeing  most  clearly  the  moral  and  religious  basis 
of  our  whole  civilization,  there  is  naturally  suggested 
to  America,  by  such  a  moral  and  religious  challenge 
as  that  of  the  present,  the  Puritan  ideal.  Many 
of  the  demands  of  the  times,  indeed,  as  we  have 
seen,  like  those  of  self-control  and  simplicity  of  life, 
are  clearly  in  the  direction  of  Puritan  aims.  There 
is  evident  advantage,  also,  in  coming  to  terms  with 
such  a  concretely  embodied  ideal,  taken  right  out 
of  our  own  historical  antecedents,  in  order  to  see 
just  how  far  it  fits  the  present  need,  and  how  far  it 
must  be  supplemented  by  later  convictions.  We 
shall  certainly  relate  ourselves  more  naturally  to 

235 


236      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

an  ideal  that  is  a  part  of  our  own  inheritance. 
Moreover,  we  cannot  help  recognizing  that  — 
with  whatever  limitations  —  the  Puritan  and 
Pilgrim  fathers  laid  the  foundations  of  the  nation 
in  strenuous  moral  and  religious  character ;  and 
we  may  well  ask  whether,  in  departing  from  them, 
we  have  lost  in  essentials  while  gaining  in  non- 
essentials. Perhaps  in  no  other  way  can  the  mean- 
ing of  the  present  challenge  in  our  own  national  life 
be  better  brought  home  to  us. 

In  any  case,  it  seems  impossible  for  a  thoughtful 
man,  in  the  light  of  the  historical  trend  of  the 
Christian  centuries,  to  face  the  inevitable  challenge 
of  the  new  external  conditions  and  of  the  new  inner 
world  of  thought,  and  not  feel  the  greatness  of  the 
demand  made  upon  our  own  national  spirit,  —  the 
need  of  a  stern  moral  awakening  at  many  points,  and 
of  the  incoming  of  something  like  a  new  Puritanism. 
The  times  require  an  enlarged  and  reinvigorated 
moral  spirit  and  ideal.  The  general  world  condi- 
tions, as  we  have  seen,  force  the  demand  upon  us. 
Ours  is  an  age  marked  by  an  enormous  increase  of 
power  over  nature,  of  wealth,  and  of  knowledge. 
Resources,  that  is,  of  every  kind  are  vastly  enlarged  ; 
and  problems  are  correspondingly  increased.  We 
have  found  it  impossible  to  doubt  that  this  situa- 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  237 

tion  calls  for  preeminent  self-control,  for  ideals  and 
interests  great  enough  and  high  enough  to  dominate 
the  material,  for  sharp  discrimination  among  the 
many  values  presenting  themselves  for  our  choice, 
for  genuine  simplicity  of  life,  and  for  willingness  to 
sacrifice  in  unselfish  service.  How  far  are  the 
American  people  to  be  able  to  measure  up  to  such 
standards  ? 

Many  circumstances  in  our  national  life  compel 
one  to  raise  the  question.  The  American  is  too 
often  characterized  by  a  "nervous  over-activity," 
that  contains  no  sound  promise  of  power.  Our 
temperament  and  our  climate  combine  with  rapidity 
of  growth  and  extent  of  opportunity  to  drive  us  on. 
This  very  intensity  and  hurried  rush  of  our  modern 
American  life  carry  with  them  obvious  and  great 
dangers  of  lack  of  thought  and  consequent  shallow- 
ness of  life.  And  yet  alert  thinking  is  never  more 
required  than  when  the  pace  is  rapid  and  the  life 
intense.  We  have  problems  of  unusual  difficulty 
to  face,  if  our  development  is  to  go  steadily  for- 
ward. We  shall  not  master  them  without  masterful 
thinking.  Apart  from  that,  our  political,  economic, 
and  social  creeds,  as  well  as  our  moral  and  religious 
ones,  become  pieces  of  planless  patchwork ;  for 
we  have  thought  nothing  through  to  the  end.     The 


238     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

points  are  certainly  few,  at  which  America  can,  as 
yet,  justly  claim  intellectual  leadership  of  the  world 
of  to-day.  No  people  will  drift  into  such  leader- 
ship ;  it  is  the  fruit  of  severe  thinking.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  not  to  be  taken  by  violence. 
Some  quiet  thoughtfulness  is  imperative,  if  we  are 
anywhere  even  to  see  things  in  true  proportion,  if 
the  great  is  to  be  to  us  really  great,  and  the  petty 
to  sink  into  its  relative  insignificance.  All  personal 
and  national  standards  suffer  from  such  lack  of 
thought. 

One  can  hardly  doubt  that  John  Rae  put  his 
finger  upon  —  what  is  even  more  now  than  when 
he  wrote  —  a  real  temptation  of  the  American 
people,  if  not  of  them  alone  —  ''the  passion  for 
material  comfort  above  all  other  things  —  the 
complete  absorption  in  the  pursuit  of  material 
well-being  and  the  means  of  material  well-doing, 
to  the  disparagement  and  disregard  of  every  ideal 
consideration  and  interest,  as  if  the  chief  end  and 
whole  dignity  of  man  lay  in  gaining  a  conventional 
standard  of  comfort."  Are  we  to  yield  to  this 
prevalent  "passion  for  material  comfort,"  and  to 
prove  recreant  to  our  more  spiritual  inheritance  ? 
Are  we  nationally  to  be  unwilling  to  take  "our  part 
in  suffering  hardship,"  for  the  sake  of  a  far  higher 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  239 

national  achievement?  Lowell's  words,  spoken  at 
Harvard's  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary, 
may  still  give  us  pause.  "A  man  rich  only  for 
himself  has  a  life  as  barren  and  cheerless  as  that 
of  the  serpent  set  to  guard  a  buried  treasure.  I 
am  saddened  when  I  see  our  successes  as  a  nation 
measured  by  the  number  of  acres  under  tillage,  or 
of  bushels  of  wheat  exported ;  for  the  real  value 
of  a  country  must  be  weighed  in  scales  more  delicate 
than  the  Balance  of  Trade.  The  Garners  of  Sicily 
are  empty  now,  but  the  bees  from  all  climes  still 
fetch  honey  from  the  tiny  garden  plot  of  Theocritus. 
On  a  map  of  the  world  you  may  cover  Judea  with 
your  thumb,  Athens  with  a  finger  tip,  and  neither 
of  them  figures  in  the  Prices  Current ;  but  they  still 
lord  it  in  the  thought  and  action  of  every  civilized 
man.  Did  not  Dante  cover  with  his  hood  all 
that  was  Italy  six  hundred  years  ago?  Material 
success  is  good,  but  only  as  the  necessary  prelimi- 
nary of  better  things.  The  measure  of  a  nation's 
true  success  is  the  amount  it  has  contributed  to  the 
thought,  the  moral  energy,  the  intellectual  happi- 
ness, the  spiritual  hope  and  consolation  of  mankind. 
There  is  no  other,  let  our  candidates  flatter  us  as 
they  may."  If  a  standard  like  this  is  to  be  applied 
to  the  American  nation,  there  can  be  no  playing 


240     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

fast     and     loose     with    intellectual     and     moral 
values. 

The  extraordinary  mingling  of  the  peoples  in  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  the  general  world  influ- 
ences of  our  time,  have  tended  somewhat  to  accen- 
tuate for  the  American  people  that  conflict  of  ideals 
that  is  everywhere  to  be  seen  in  this  peculiarly 
transitional  time.  And  no  American,  who  loves 
his  country,  can  be  without  anxiety,  that  that 
general  lack  of  the  sense  of  law  in  the  whole  realm 
of  the  spiritual,  which  we  have  found  so  character- 
izing our  age,  should  manifest  itself  so  ominously 
in  our  own  people,  in  a  prevalent  lack  of  the  sense 
of  grip  in  the  moral  and  religious  life.  There  is 
quite  too  evident  an  easy-going  spirit,  that  feels 
nothing  as  absolutely  imperative  or  decisive,  — 
a  shallow,  optimistic  good  nature,  that  has  no  basic 
belief  in  the  rigor  of  the  nature  of  things.  In  the 
world  of  spiritual  values,  we  seem  to  belong  to  an 
amiable  rather  than  a  strenuous  age.  And  the 
fruit  of  this  attitude  is  to  be  found  in  a  widespread 
spirit  of  lawlessness  that  has  infected  highly  privi- 
leged individuals  and  communities,  that  seem  ready 
with  a  fool's  laugh  to  turn  back  to  barbarism,  and 
have  forgotten  Kant's  solemn  words,  "If  law 
ceases,   all   worth  of  human   life  on  earth   ceases 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  24 1 

too."  How  inconsistent  and  paradoxical  all  this 
is,  for  an  age  that  boasts  itself  a  scientific  age,  we 
have  already  observed ;  for  the  fundamental  con- 
viction of  modern  science  is  the  universality  of 
law.  Our  generation  needs  to  heed,  not  only  the 
protest  of  the  philosopher,  and  of  the  spirit  of  its 
own  science,  but  the  similar  and  still  graver  and 
more  ancient  warning :  "  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is 
not  mocked :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap." 

All  these  and  other  similar  current  phenomena  of 
American  hfe  call  aloud  for  some  taking  stock  of 
our  moral  and  religious  heritage,  that  we  may  see 
at  what  points  we  have  drifted  and  lost  ground,  at 
what  points  we  have  truly  advanced,  and  that  we 
may  summon  all  our  energies  for  a  still  nobler  na- 
tional hfe.  That  result,  as  certainly  as  there  is  law  in 
the  world,  assuredly  will  not  come  to  a  vacillating, 
flabby,  self-indulgent  generation  ;  for  the  moral  hfe 
is,  on  the  contrary,  essentially  clean-cut,  vigorous, 
and  serving.  For  such  moral  reinvigoration  and  ad- 
vance, we  need  the  will  even  more  than  knowledge. 

"We  know  the  paths  wherein  our  feet  should  press, 
Across  our  hearts  are  written  thy  decrees. 
Yet  now,  O  Lord,  be  merciful  to  bless 
With  more  than  these. 


242      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

"  Grant  us  the  will  to  fashion  as  we  feel, 
Grant  us  the  strength  to  labor  as  we  know, 
Grant  us  the  purpose,  ribbed  and  edged  with  steel, 
To  strike  the  blow. 


"  Knowledge  we  ask  not  —  knowledge  thou  hast  lent, 
But,  Lord,  the  will  —  there  lies  our  bitter  need. 
Give  us  to  build  above  the  deep  intent 
The  deed,  the  deed."  ^ 

The  title  of  the  chapter— The  New  Puritanism- 
states  our  problem.  If  it  is  Puritanism  that  the 
nation  needs,  then  that  means  that  from  the  older 
ideal  there  is  something  to  be  retained  and  some- 
thing to  be  maintained.  Just  what?  If  it  is  to 
be  a  new  Puritanism,  then  there  is  something  to 
criticize  and  to  correct.  Just  what  ?  That  is,  how 
far  was  Puritanism  mistaken?  How  far  was  the 
reaction  from  Puritanism  mistaken?  Can  we  see 
both  movements  now  more  clearly,  and  correcting 
and  supplementing  both,  add  to  the  positives  of 
Puritanism  the  positives  of  the  modern  spirit,  and 
so  reach  a  reconstruction  in  our  living  as  well  as 
in  our  thinking  ?  There  is  attempted  here,  that  is, 
not  history,  not  eulogy  of  the  Puritans,  not  banter, 
but  a  straight  facing  of  our  national  needs. 

1  John  Drinkwater,  in  The  Spectator. 


THE   NEW   PUEITANISM  243 


THE    GREAT   POSITIVES    OF    THE    PURITAN   SPIRIT 

The  greatness  of  the  Puritans  lies  manifestly  in 
their  convictions  and  in  their  conscience.  Marti- 
neau's  words  are  peculiarly  true  of  them:  "The 
noblest  workers  of  our  world  bequeath  us  nothing  so 
great  as  the  image  of  themselves.  Their  task,  be 
it  ever  so  glorious,  is  historical  and  transient;  the 
majesty  of  their  spirit  is  essential  and  eternal." 
What,  then,  are  the  great  abiding  positives  of  the 
Puritans  ? 

I.  First  of  all,  there  stands  out  their  sense  of 
God  and  of  the  spiritual  world.  The  Puritan  had  the 
prophet's  vision  of  God  as  the  realest  of  realities. 
For  him  the  things  that  were  seen  were  temporal. 
It  was  only  the  unseen  that  was  eternal.  It  was, 
thus,  no  absentee  or  uninterested  God,  no  God 
living  in  some  little  corner  of  his  universe,  in  whom 
the  Puritan  believed,  but  a  God  with  whom  all  the 
world  had  to  do  and  with  whom  all  life  was  instinct. 
He  heard,  as  a  present  fact,  the  old  prophetic 
challenge:  "Is  not  my  word  like  fire?  saith 
Jehovah ;  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the 
rock  in  pieces?"     The  Puritan  had  profound  reli- 


244     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

gious  conviction.  It  is  his  great  distinction.  And 
such  religious  faith,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show 
underlies  all  our  reasoning,  all  work  worth  doing, 
all  strenuous  moral  endeavor,  all  earnest  social 
service.  This  deep  religious  faith  of  the  Puritan  is, 
therefore,  an  abiding  need  of  humanity.  For  the 
men  who  are  to  be  capable  of  great  achievements 
must  be  seers  of  the  invisible,  believers  in  the  living 
God,  and  in  the  onward  march  of  his  providence. 
Great  deeds  require  great  convictions. 

2.  Out  of  this  deep  sense  of  God  and  the  spiritual 
world  came,  in  the  second  place,  the  consequent 
conviction  of  commission,  of  divine  calling,  of  vocation. 
The  Puritan  believed  that  he  was  sent  from  God, 
that  he  had  a  divine  charge  to  keep,  a  calling  to 
fulfill,  a  mission  to  accomplish,  a  message  to  utter. 
For  him, 

"God  bends  from  out  the  deep  and  says, 

'  I  gave  thee  the  great  gift  of  life ; 

Wast  thou  not  called  in  many  ways  ? 

Are  not  my  earth  and  heaven  at  strife  ? ' " 

The  Puritan  thus  added  to  the  prophet's  sense  of 
God  the  apostle's  sense  of  commission.  And  this, 
too,  is  an  abiding  need  for  all  men  who  would  live 
a  significant  life.  Somewhere  and  somehow,  if 
there  is  to  be  any  high  meaning  in  life,  men  must 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  245 

have  the  sense  that  they  are  here  on  no  fool's 
errand,  that  life  is  not  purposeless  and  empty,  but 
that  it  is  given  them  to  know  that  they  are  "sent 
from  God,"  and  may  have  share  in  his  own  great 
purposes.  Every  people  with  a  vigorous  and 
throbbing  life  has  had  some  such  faith,  and  every 
nation  that  means  to  count  greatly  in  the  world 
still  needs  the  Puritan's  feeling  of  commission  from 
God.  Without  this,  patriotism  itself  is  low-born, 
and  lacks  its  divinest  element. 

3.  Of  the  sense  of  commission  is  born,  in  turn, 
the  Puritan's  feeling  of  responsibility  and  account- 
ability, —  the  Puritan  conscience  and  his  loyalty 
to  duty  as  the  law  of  God.  He  was  come,  he  felt 
sure,  to  do  the  will  of  God.  It  is,  indeed,  the  great 
achievement  of  religious  faith  to  translate  imper- 
sonal duty  and  law  into  the  personal  will  of  God. 
So,  and  so  only,  can  law  and  duty  take  on  an  appeal- 
ing warmth  and  intimacy,  and  gain  immeasurably 
in  meaning  and  in  power.  So,  they  become  great 
and  sacred  inspirations.  Men  feel  then  that  they 
have  to  do,  not  with  an  impersonal  law  laid  on  from 
without,  but  with  the  revelation  of  a  living  will 
within  them.  Because  of  belief  in  God,  because  of 
belief  in  his  commission  from  God,  the  Puritan 
could  not  escape  the  immediate  and    tremendous 


246     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

sense  of  responsibility  and  accountability.  If  he 
were  here  on  commission  from  God,  to  do  solely 
the  will  of  God,  responsibility  and  accountability 
were  to  be  faced  at  every  turn ;  and  the  entire  life 
must  be  permeated  with  the  sense  of  them.  There 
can  be  no  light  and  frivolous  trifling  with  life,  or 
with  any  situation  in  it.  How  certainly  is  this  sense 
of  responsibility  and  accountability,  too,  a  perma- 
nent need  of  the  human  race,  and  of  all  worthy 
achievement  by  any  nation.  It  ought  to  be  pecul- 
iarly natural  for  a  people  that  make  earnest  at  all 
with  the  modern  social  consciousness.  Such  a 
people  cannot  forget  their  responsibility  for  the 
neediest  in  their  ranks,  nor  doubt  that  God  must 
hold  them  accountable  for  even  these  least. 

4.  But  to  him  who  has  the  prophet's  vision  of 
God,  as  the  realest  of  realities,  the  apostle's  convic- 
tion of  divine  commission,  and  its  inevitable  accom- 
paniment, the  feeling  of  responsibility  and  account- 
abihty,  there  must  come,  also,  a  tremendous 
sense  of  the  sigjiificance  and  value  of  life.  For  he 
thinks  of  his  life  as  connected  with  God,  as  sharing 
in  God's  life  and  in  the  very  plans  of  God ;  and  there 
can  be,  therefore,  nothing  in  it  meaningless  and 
worthless.  It  was  possible  that  such  a  conception 
might  overpower  man  in  his  living,  as  it  sometimes 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  247 

seemed  almost  to  crush  the  Puritan,  but  it  could 
not  make  hfe  seem  trivial.  For,  as  Liddon  says : 
"With  God,  the  human  soul  not  merely  interprets 
the  secret  of  the  universe ;  it  comprehends  and  is  at 
peace  with  itself.  For  God  is  the  satisfaction  of 
its  thirst."  To  desire  with  all  one's  soul  the  truth, 
—  to  have  the  single  aim  to  know  and  to  do  the 
will  of  God,  exalts  the  man  and  his  life  inevitably. 
It  Kfts  one  above  personal  caprice  and  prejudice; 
it  clears  the  judgment;  it  gives  singleness,  sim- 
plicity, and  transparency  of  spirit;  it  contains, 
thereby,  the  secret  of  power  and  of  greatness,  for 
only  the  domination  of  a  great  purpose  can  make 
a  life  great ;  and  it  alone  gives  abiding  triumph,  for 
''he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever." 
This  sense  of  the  significance  and  value  of  life,  once 
more,  is  an  abiding  human  need,  and  a  permanent 
necessity,  too,  for  an  exalted  national  life.  Our 
merely  material  or  even  humanistic  tasks,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  however  gigantic,  cannot  permanently 
either  satisfy  ourselves,  or  enable  us  to  render  the 
highest  service  to  the  world.  "Either  there  is  some- 
thing other  and  higher  than  this  purely  humanistic 
culture,  or  life  ceases  to  have  any  meaning  or  value. "^ 
We  need  the  Puritan's  profound  rehgious  conviction. 
^  Eucken,  The  Meaning  and  Value  of  Life,  p.  140. 


248     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

■  None  of  these  great  positives  of  Puritanism,  then, 
can  we  spare.  We  require  them  every  one,  and  we 
require  them  mightily.  And  we  can  have  them  in 
even  greater  degree  than  the  Puritans  had  them,  if 
we  take  them  up,  less  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Old  Testament  than  did  they,  and  more  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  New  Testament,  of  the  unity 
of  the  life  of  man,  and  of  the  inner  spirit  of  Christ. 

II 

THE  REACTION  FROM  PURITANISM 

But  if  we  are  accurately  to  estimate  our  relation 
to  our  inherited  Puritan  ideal  we  need,  not  only  to 
note,  thus,  its  positive  contributions,  but  also  to 
study  the  historical  reaction  from  Puritanism,  in 
order  to  discern  the  relative  justification  of  this 
reaction  and  any  suggestion  that  it  may  have  of 
Puritan  weaknesses.  In  all  lines  we  shall  find  that 
the  reaction  from  the  Puritan  spirit  had  some  real 
measure  of  justification  ;  but  that  the  mistake  made 
in  each  reaction  turns  on  an  ambiguity  in  the  cry 
raised  against  Puritanism,  and  really  ends  incon- 
sistently in  a  Puritan  weakness. 

I.  The  first  reaction  from  Puritanism  may,  per- 
haps, be  said  to  be  sentimentalism.     It  justly  re- 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  249 

acted  from  the  Puritan  sense  of  an  arbitrary  God, 
and  his  consequent  lack  of  tenderness  and  love. 
Just  so  far  as,  under  the  influence  of  an  extreme 
Calvinism,  the  Puritans  made  much  of  the  arbi- 
trariness of  the  decrees  of  God,  they  made  it  diffi- 
cult to  ascribe  to  God  any  genuine  and  reasonable 
love.  And  this  defective  conception  of  God  was 
practically  certain  to  be  reflected  in  depreciation  of 
tenderness  and  love  in  men.  They  were  still 
living  in  the  Old  Testament  period,  and  at  this 
point  hardly  rose  even  to  its  best  visions.  This 
virtually  unchristian  attitude  could  not  go  without 
protest.  It  demanded,  in  the  very  name  of  the 
love  of  God,  repudiation  of  the  Puritan  position 
at  this  point. 

Sentimentalism  might  be  said  to  arise,  on  the 
contrary,  from  an  abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  from  a  disastrous  mis- 
understanding of  the  real  nature  of  love  and  for- 
giveness. Its  mistake  turns  upon  the  ambiguous 
use  of  love,  as  thoughtless,  weak,  good  nature.  It 
forgets  that  love,  too,  may  have  its  "consuming 
fire"  that  must  wish  to  burn  the  dross  out  of  the 
one  loved ;  that  sin  is  more  terrible  to  the  father, 
as  has  been  said,  than  it  can  be  to  the  judge.  It 
forgets  that  he  could  be  no  true  Father  of  men, 


250     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

who  made  the  results  of  evil  choices,  the  same  as 
those  of  right  choices.  Sentimentalism,  thus,  fails 
to  discern  that,  just  because  God  is  a  Father  who 
is  absolutely  faithful  in  his  love,  there  must  be 
law  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world.  A  faith- 
ful father  could  not  consent  to  play  fast  and  loose 
with  his  children.  Sentimentalism  disbelieves, 
therefore,  in  the  necessity  of  discipline,  and  shirks 
steady  training  in  home  and  education.  It  thinks, 
for  example,  that  university  students  may  have  at 
the  same  time  the  freedom  of  men  and  the  irre- 
sponsibility of  boys.  It  imagines  that  lawlessness 
is  particularly  pardonable  in  that  privileged  few, 
set  apart  for  the  higher  education,  who  are,  in 
fact,  most  of  all  in  honor  bound  to  be  loyal  to  law. 
It  cannot  understand  Dr.  Arnold's  words  at  Rugby  : 
"It  is  not  necessary  that  this  school  of  ours  should 
contain  three  hundred  students;  it  is  not  neces- 
sary that  it  should  contain  fifty,  but  it  is  necessary 
that  it  should  be  a  school  of  Christian  gentlemen." 
That  is,  at  every  point  sentimentalism  weakens 
the  sense  of  law,  and  so  of  all  true  love,  and  thus 
itself  ends  in  a  Puritan  weakness.  For  the  Puri- 
tan's belief  in  God's  arbitrary  election  of  the  indi- 
vidual weakens,  ultimately,  the  sense  of  inner 
moral  law,  and  makes  impossible  any  truly  moral 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  25 1 

conception  of  a  forgiving  love,  in  the  same  way  as 
does  sentimentalism. 

2.  The  second  reaction  from  Puritanism  may  be 
called  a  false  tolerance.  This  was  a  mistaken  ex- 
pression of  a  natural  and  quite  justified  reaction 
from  the  narrowness  of  interests  that  characterized 
the  Puritan  mind.  The  Puritan  hardly  conceived 
the  breadth  of  legitimate  human  interests,  or 
dreamed  of  a  redemption  of  all  that  wide  world 
of  the  human.  Human  nature  could  not  remain 
satisfied  with  that  position.  Eventually  it  must 
be  seen  to  be  dishonoring  to  religion  itself ;  for  it 
dishonors  men,  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and 
confines  religion  to  a  section  of  life,  instead  of 
seeking  for  it  a  full  conquest  of  the  world.  Re- 
ligion, in  its  endeavor  to  see  life  from  God's  point 
of  view  should  be  peculiarly  wide-ranging.  Nar- 
rowness, here,  is  a  kind  of  contradiction  in  terms. 
The  legitimacy  of  the  reaction  from  Puritan 
narrowness  cannot  be  questioned,  therefore,  even 
when,  with  the  Puritan,  one  has  religion  particu- 
larly in  view. 

But  the  reaction,  at  this  point,  has  tended,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  toward  a  false  tolerance,  that 
needs  careful  facing.  The  tendency,  in  any  re- 
action, is  quite  to  forget  the  element  of  truth  in 


252      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  position  from  which  one  is  turning.  And 
false  tolerance  reaches  a  kind  of  breadth  that  is 
as  indefensible  as  the  narrowness  it  seeks  to  avoid. 
In  this  easy-going  generation  of  ours,  can  we 
make  plain  what  a  true,  as  contrasted  with  a  false, 
tolerance  is'?  False  tolerance  turns  upon  the 
possible  ambiguity  of  the  word  "breadth,"  and 
comes  from  a  perverse  misconception  of  what 
breadth  requires. 

(i)  For  breadth  certainly  does  not  mean,  in 
the  first  place,  that  one  should  ignore  the  results  of 
experience.  And  yet  breadth  is  often  so  used  as 
to  imply  that  it  is  narrowness  to  regard  the  lessons 
of  experience,  as  though  everything  remained  for- 
ever an  open  question.  Students  often  assume 
that  the  only  way  to  take  up  great  moral  and 
religious  questions  is  to  study  them  as  if  they 
were  absolutely  new,  —  as  if  there  were  no  such 
thing  as  race  experience  at  all  ;  although  this  is 
plainly  to  ignore,  probably,  the  largest  elements 
in  the  solution  of  these  problems.  Men  have 
learned  something  in  the  course  of  the  centuries; 
and  one  may  be  pardoned  having  some  prejudices 
in  favor  of  the  Copernican  system  as  over  against 
the  Ptolemaic.  One  is  not  only  to  keep  a  ques- 
tion open  when   the  evidence  is  not  in,   but  to 


THE    NEW    PURITANISM  253 

decide  upon  the  evidence  when  the  evidence 
is  in. 

(2)  Just  as  Httle,  in  the  second  place,  can 
breadth  mean  lack  of  discrimination,  —  the  put- 
ting of  all  things  on  the  same  level.  That  is  not 
breadth  at  all,  but  simply  stupid  lack  of  discrimi- 
native thinking.  And  yet  men  seem  often  to  feel 
that  this  putting  of  all  things  on  a  dead  level  is 
precisely  what  breadth  requires.  The  theory  of 
evolution  has  been  often  thus  perverted  to  mean 

—  what  evolution  itself  must  at  every  step  deny 

—  that  there  is  no  true  evolution,  that  a  phenome- 
non is  as  low  as  its  lowest  stage,  that  a  thing  is 
what  it  was,  that  all  stages  of  development  are 
equally  valuable  or  equally  worthless,  as  you 
please.  Evolutionary  views  of  morals  and  re- 
Hgion  are  often  taken  as  meaning  that  all  ideals 
and  all  religions  are  on  the  same  level,  that  man 
has  here  no  clear  task  of  discrimination  and  of 
decisive  judgment.  A  man  with  this  false  toler- 
ance, thus,  often  abuses  the  perception  that  one 
cannot  anjrwhere  in  life  draw  an  absolutely  sharp 
line,  to  make  it  mean  that,  therefore,  no  lines  are 
to  be  drawn,  that  no  discriminations  at  all  are  to 
be  made.  There  may  be  continuous,  unbroken 
evolution   throughout   the   organic  world,   but,   if 


2  54      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

there  is,  it  does  not  follow  that  I  cannot  tell  the 
difference  between  an  elephant  and  a  sweet  pea, 
or  that  I  may  not  wisely  exercise  such  discrimina- 
tion. I  cannot  put  my  finger  upon  the  exact 
point  at  which  an  irresponsible  unmoral  infant 
passes  into  the  child  as  a  responsible  moral  being ; 
but  that  does  not  lessen  the  fact  that  such  a  change 
does  take  place.  Such  lack  of  discrimination, 
surely,  is  not  true  tolerance. 

(3)  Nor,  in  the  third  place,  is  tolerance  lack  of 
conviction.  For  tolerance  is  not  indifference  nor 
sophistication.  The  truth  is  that  true  tolerance 
is  no  easy-going  virtue,  into  which  the  indifferent, 
convictionless  man  may  drift  some  fine  day.  It 
is  no  virtue  for  dullards  or  sluggards,  or  for  men 
without  spines.  It  belongs  only  to  the  man  of 
deep  convictions.  For  if  you  do  not  care  a  rap 
what  I  think  on  a  subject,  it  is  no  tolerance  in 
you  that  you  are  willing  I  should  think  as  I  do 
—  you  are  simply  indifferent.  But  if  it  seems  to 
you  most  vital  what  position  a  man  takes  on  the 
subject,  if  you  have  upon  it  yourself  profound 
convictions,  and  still  acknowledge  freely  my  full 
right  to  my  own  possibly  opposite  conclusions, 
then  you  show  tolerance;  not  otherwise.  For 
you  cannot  be  truly  tolerant  without  convictions. 


THE    NEW    PURITANISM  255 

(4)  And  as  surely  as  breadth  does  not  mean 
ignoring  the  results  of  experience,  nor  lack  of  dis- 
crimination, nor  lack  of  convictions,  just  as  surely 
it  cannot  mean  a  mere  narrow  intellectualism,  that 
forgets  the  complexity  of  life,  forgets  the  wide 
sweep  of  man's  interests,  forgets  the  claims  of  the 
whole  man,  and  so  counts  itself  superior  to  morals 
and  religion.  It  is  curious  that  such  intrinsic  narrow- 
ness should  mistake  itself  for  exceptional  breadth. 

In  all  these  mistaken  conceptions  of  breadth, 
alike,  it  is  then  to  be  noted,  that  the  false  toler- 
ance, which  began  as  a  reaction  from  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  Puritan,  ends  in  a  lack  of  discrimina- 
tion, just  as  marked  as  that  which  was  charged 
against  the  narrowness  of  Puritanism.  The  re- 
action from  Puritanism  objects,  for  example,  to 
the  Puritan  condemnation  of  all  plays  and  all 
novels  as  evil,  because  it  makes  no  discrimination. 
But  the  reaction  itself  ends,  quite  too  often,  in 
accepting  all  as  good,  in  equally  undiscriminat- 
ing  fashion.  Undiscriminating  acceptance  has  no 
stones  to  throw  at  undiscriminating  rejection. 
The  fact  is,  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  bullying 
just  now,  in  the  name  of  breadth,  of  the  man  who 
thinks  there  must  be  some  decent  line  somewhere 
to  be  drawn  between  the  broadening  and  the  cor- 


256     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

rupting,  between  the  enlightening  and  the  debasing. 
The  grown  man  often  seems  to  be  as  afraid  of  the 
word  "narrow"  as  the  boy  of  the  word  "green"; 
and  both  aUke  are  bulldozed,  in  the  name  of 
"breadth"  and  of  "seeing  life,"  into  approving 
and  sharing  much  of  which  they  ought  to  be 
heartily  ashamed.  And  they  forget  that  in  any 
case  it  is  better  to  be  green  than  to  be  rotten; 
for  greenness,  at  least,  has  promise,  rottenness  has 
none.  The  very  end  of  education  and  of  civiliza- 
tion may  be  said  to  be,  to  make  the  really  thought- 
ful man,  the  man  of  discrimination,  the  man  who 
can  see  things  in  their  proper  proportion.  We  may 
well  ask  this  undiscriminating  •  breadth  and  this 
false  tolerance,  whether  the  very  essence  of  the 
intellectual  life  is  to  be  given  up  in  the  moral. 

3.  The  third  reaction  from  Puritanism  may  be 
called  a  false  realism.  This  naturally  arose  as  a 
mistaken  interpretation  of  a  quite  justified  re- 
action against  the  ascetic  aspect  of  Puritanism. 
For  that  was  felt  unfairly  to  ignore  the  physical 
man  and  his  needs,  and  to  fail  to  see  the  close 
connection  of  the  physical  with  all  higher  achieve- 
ment. The  ascetic  tendency,  wherever  found,  is 
quite  certain  to  fail  in  doing  justice  to  the  common 
goods  of  life,   and   to   the  common  indispensable 


.       THE   NEW   PURITANISM  257 

and  basic  virtues  as  well,  in  its  claim  to  the  pos- 
session of  superior  attainments.  One  can,  to  be 
sure,  easily  understand  that  it  has  root  in  a  noble, 
even  if  mistaken,  feehng.  But  here  again,  re- 
ligion tends,  ultimately,  to  dishonor  religious  faith. 
For  the  ascetic  contempt  of  the  body  is  contempt 
of  a  condition  divinely  ordained  and  created. 
That  the  strong  ascetic  feeling  in  Puritanism 
called  for  protest,  in  the  name  of  religion  itself, 
cannot  be  doubted. 

But  the  reaction  against  Puritanism,  at  this 
point,  tended  to  swing  to  a  remote  extreme,  and 
to  retain  no  element  of  religion,  and  hardly  of 
morals.  For  there  is  a  false  realism  that  thinks 
itself  peculiarly  enlightened  and  enfranchised  from 
all  the  older  restraints.  This  false  realism  is  itself 
an  abuse  of  the  emphasis  upon  the  real,  and  turns 
upon  the  ambiguity  that  lies  in  that  word.  It 
sees  in  human  beings  only  the  man  of  some  modern 
sociologists,  —  the  man  who  is  essentially  and 
merely  a  creature  of  two  appetites,  —  the  appetite 
for  food  and  the  appetite  for  sex.  And  it  proceeds 
to  evolve  all  history  out  of  these  two  appetites 
and  man's  physical  environment.  It  involves  an 
undiscriminating  emphasis  on  the  physical,  and 
takes  pleasure  in  reiterating,  in  the  refrain  of  a 


258     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

modern  English  poem,  "Love  is  lust."  It  talks 
of  getting  down  to  the  "hard  facts"  of  life;  by 
which  again  it  means  the  recognition  in  man  only 
of  the  physical.  The  real  throughout  is  simply  the 
physical. 

Now  man  is,  no  doubt,  physical,  a  creature  of 
appetites  and  passions;  this  is  a  "hard  fact." 
But  it  is  not  less  a  "hard  fact"  that  man  has 
interest  in  literature,  in  music,  in  art,  in  friend- 
ship ;  that  he  has  memory  and  anticipation,  the 
sense  of  beauty  and  of  truth,  the  sense  of  duty  and 
obligation,  and  is  capable  of  all  high  moral  and 
religious  ideals ;  and  this,  this  false  and  narrow 
realism  tends  to  ignore.  That  is  to  say,  this  false 
realism  ends  again,  inconsistently  enough,  in  a 
Puritan  weakness.  For  Puritanism  has  been 
charged  with  making  too  little  of  men  in  the  face 
of  the  invincible  decrees  of  God,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  non-elect;  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  charge  is  true.  Puritanism  does,  in  this 
aspect,  overwhelm  and  override  man  in  a  way 
impossible  to  God.  But  what  littleness  is  this  of 
the  false  realism,  where  there  is  no  real  belief  in 
man's  heroic  mold  and  possibilities  at  all !  It 
cannot  see  that  man  is  made  for  action,  and  made 
for  personal    relations,   that  he  is  "called  to  an 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  259 

imperishable  work  in  the  world,"  and  has  need, 
therefore,  of  faith  in  immortality,  if  he  is  to  be 
satisfied  at  all.  The  man  of  Puritanism  is  a  far 
greater  being  than  the  man  of  the  false  reaUsm. 

4.  The  fourth  reaction  from  Puritanism  may  be 
called  a  false  estheticism.  It  was  legitimate  enough 
that  there  should  be,  in  the  human  mind,  a  re- 
action from  the  Puritan  underestimate,  and  almost 
contempt,  of  beauty.  Even  among  the  sternest  of 
the  Puritans  themselves,  beauty  could  not  be 
wholly  denied.  And  though  one  can  understand 
the  sense  of  moral  danger  which  prompted  it,  it  is 
still  hard  to  forgive  the  Puritan  crusade  against 
the  beautiful  in  art  and  architecture.  The  love 
of  beauty  too  was  divinely  implanted  in  men. 
It  could  not  be  utterly  denied,  and  not  violate 
God-given  instincts.  It  is  no  mere  sense  of  the 
prettiness  of  a  phrase  that  has  led  men  to  group 
so  persistently  together  "the  good,  the  true,  and 
the  beautiful."  The  human  soul  feels,  even  half 
unconsciously,  in  all  true  beauty,  some  divine 
prophecy  of  ultimate  harmony.  Men  could  not, 
either  in  faith  in  God,  or  in  loyalty  to  themselves, 
keep  the  Puritan  standpoint  here.  A  reaction  was  in- 
evitable. But  it  did  not  run  its  course,  until  it  had 
reached  in  modern  life  an  equally  false  estheticism. 


26o     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

The  false  estheticism  turns  upon  the  ambiguity 
of  the  words,  "beauty"  and  "art";  and  involves 
a  mistaken  conception  of  what  beauty  and  art  re- 
quire. It  does  not  follow  that,  because  an  interest 
and  ideal  have  been  ignored,  they  must  now  be 
made  to  dominate  all  other  ideals,  and  that,  in 
such  domination,  they  will  lose  nothing  of  their 
own  intrinsic  worth.  But  this  false  estheticism 
would  make  the  esthetic  the  only  consideration, 
and  is  capable  of  saying  with  Swinburne : 

"To  say  of  shame,  What  is  it? 
Of  virtue,  We  can  miss  it ; 
Of  sin,  We  can  but  kiss  it 
And  it's  no  longer  sin." 

And  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  sensuous  beauty  of 
FitzGerald's  version  of  Omar  Khayyam  has  often 
been  made  to  excuse  or  to  hide  the  rank  falseness 
of  the  moral  ideals  that  lay  beneath. 

This  false  estheticism  forgets  that  the  artist  is 
first  of  all  a  man,  and  must  regard,  above  all,  the 
harmony  of  his  own  being ;  and  may  not,  therefore, 
in  his  art  set  aside  the  laws  of  the  universe  and  of 
his  own  nature.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  archi- 
tect may,  if  he  will,  ignore  the  laws  of  gravity ; 
but  his  structure  will  soon  cease  to  bear  witness 
to  any  ideal.     And  just  as  truly,  where  the  work 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  26 1 

of  art  lends  itself  to  the  lowering  of  human  life, 
and  prompts  to  the  violation  of  its  fundamental 
laws,  the  artist  has  forgotten  the  end  of  art,  and 
has  bound  it  to  lower  aims.  It  is  no  prudery  to 
protest  that  art  —  whether  in  play  or  dance  or 
picture  or  statue  or  poem  or  novel  —  has  no  busi- 
ness to  be  degrading,  or  simply  to  provoke  the 
passions.  For  where  the  sensual  comes  in,  ap- 
preciation of  beauty  as  such  has  been  driven  out ; 
and  the  so-called  work  of  art  has  ceased  to  be  a 
work  of  art,  and  become  a  panderer  instead.  In 
so  saying,  one  does  not  forget  the  difficulty  of  the 
question,  and  the  need  of  handling  dark  themes ; 
but  do  our  time,  our  art,  our  stage,  our  novels, 
have  no  need  for  the  sobering  words  of  a  philoso- 
pher, who  has  peculiar  right  to  be  heard  in  the 
matter  of  esthetic  judgment:  ''We  too  easily  for- 
get that  much  which  looks  extremely  well  in  a 
picture  and  has  a  striking  effect  in  poetry,  would 
make  us  heartily  ashamed  of  our  prepossessions  if 
we  were  to  see  it,  not  at  a  single  favorable  moment 
but  in  the  ordinary  course  of  life,  in  connection 
with  all  its  manifold  results.  The  charm  of  what 
is  strange  and  full  of  characteristic  expression  and 
one-sided  originaUty  is  so  great  that  it  leads 
every  one  to  be  sometimes  unjust  towards  that 


262      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

consistent,  thoughtful,  steadfast  order  of  civilized 
life  which,  though  less  warm  in  coloring,  is  in- 
effably more  worthy."  ^  The  immoral  is  every- 
where a  violation  of  a  true  love.  It  contains  at 
some  point,  we  may  be  sure,  a  hideous  element  of 
treachery.  It  is  a  false  estheticism,  which  throws 
a  glamour  of  loveliness  over  what  is  essentially 
ugly  and  sordid. 

All  this  is  to  say,  once  again,  that  this  reaction, 
also,  ends  in  something  very  like  a  Puritan  weak- 
ness. For  the  true  answer  to  moral  exclusiveness 
is  surely  not  esthetic  exclusiveness.  The  true 
ideal  must  rather  be,  the  beautiful  —  the  ideal  — 
embodiment  of  the  ideal  life. 


Ill 


THE    NEW    PURITANISM,    ADDING    THE    GREAT    POSI- 
TIVES   OF   THE   MODERN   SPIRIT 

In  the  light  of  the  discussion  of  the  great  posi- 
tives of  the  Puritan  spirit,  and  of  its  weaknesses, 
as  seen  both  in  the  relative  justification  of  the 
reactions  from  Puritanism  and  in  their  incon- 
sistencies, can  we  discern  a  Httle  more  clearly 
what  that  new  Puritanism  must  be,  that  should 

1  Lotze,  The  Alicrocosmtcs,  Vol.  II,  p.  65. 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  263 

strengthen  and  ennoble  our  national  life?  The 
new  Puritanism,  to  which  the  nation  is  called, 
certainly  needs,  first  of  all,  to  keep  the  great  posi- 
tives of  the  Puritan  spirit:  their  prophetic  vision 
of  God  and  the  spiritual  world;  their  apostolic 
conviction  of  divine  commission;  their  involved 
feeling  of  responsibility  and  accountability;  and 
their  consequent  tremendous  sense  of  the  signifi- 
cance and  value  of  life.  We  may  not  be  able  to 
think  these  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  they. 
But  the  national  life  cannot  be  securely  built  upon 
foundations  less  deep  and  strong  than  these.  We 
have  already  seen  how  certainly  our  whole  West- 
ern civilization  roots  in  moral-religious  convictions ; 
we  require,  not  less  than  the  Puritan,  for  national 
greatness  the  sense  of  the  on-working  of  God  in 
the  history  of  men.  We  have  seen  how  every 
great  people  has  believed  in  its  divine  origin  and 
calling;  we  cannot  yet  spare,  if  we  are  to  be  a 
great  people,  the  Puritan's  thrilling  sense  of  divine 
commission.  We  have  seen  how  even  the  ancient 
state  acknowledged  its  accountability  to  principles 
that  bound  it  to  limitless  self-sacrifice  ;  in  the  larger, 
swifter,  and  more  complex  life  of  our  time  we 
surely  need  not  less,  but  more  than  the  ancient, 
and  more  than  the  Puritan,  the  sense  of  account- 


264     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

ability  and  responsibility.  We  have  seen  how- 
life  cheapens  and  grows  petty  where  great  motives 
die  out,  where  faith  fails  and  a  materialized  civili- 
zation creeps  in  ;  and  we  need  —  we  deeply  need 
—  the  Puritan's  tremendous  sense  of  the  signifi- 
cance and  value  of  life,  if  we  are  worthily  to  gird 
ourselves  for  our  national  task. 

At  the  same  time,  the  new  Puritanism  will  seek 
to  avoid  those  Puritan  weaknesses  from  which  the 
human  mind  has  inevitably  reacted.  It  will  avoid 
the  Puritan  lack  of  tenderness  and  love,  the 
Puritan  narrowness  of  interest,  its  false  asceticism, 
and  its  underestimate  of  beauty.  It  must  show  a 
greater  faith  in  God  than  these  Puritan  weak- 
nesses evinced.  And  the  new  Puritanism  will  just 
as  certainly  rise  above  the  false  extremes  disclosed 
in  the  reaction  from  Puritanism.  The  new  Puri- 
tanism must  not  be  bhnded  by  sentimentalism, 
by  a  false  tolerance,  by  a  false  realism,  or  by  a 
false  estheticism.  It  will  have  a  love  that  is 
genuine  and  faithful ;  a  tolerance  that  is  marked 
by  discriminating  convictions ;  a  realism  that  can 
be  just  to  the  whole  man  in  the  wide  sweep  of  his 
aims  —  man  at  his  best,  as  well  as  at  his  worst ; 
and  a  sense  of  beauty  as  an  ideal,  that  will  not 
desecrate  itself  by  seeking  ruthless  destruction  of 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  265 

other  ideals,  but  will,  rather,  seek  the  larger  har- 
mony of  organic  unity  with  them. 

One  may  well  believe  that  the  best  thought  and 
life  of  the  nation  are  thus  aiming  to  preserve  the 
true  and  worthy  elements  both  of  Puritanism  and 
of  the  reaction  from  it.  It  has  not  been  without 
permanent  gain  for  the  national  life,  we  may  hope, 
that  both  these  movements  have  been  lived 
through. 

But  if  a  genuinely  new  Puritanism  is  to  be 
achieved,  still  another  step  must  be  taken.  The 
new  Puritanism  must  seek  consciously  and  con- 
structively to  add  to  the  great  positives  of  the 
Puritans  the  great  positives  of  the  modern  spirit, 
that  may  correct  the  weaknesses  both  of  Puritan- 
ism and  the  reactions  from  it.  These  great  posi- 
tives of  the  modern  spirit  may,  perhaps,  be  summed 
up  in  the  supreme  demand  for  a  genuine,  reverent 
love ;  the  perception  of  the  breadth  and  com- 
plexity of  life;  and  the  recognition  of  the  unity  of 
man. 

I.  First,  and  most  of  all,  as  over  against  the 
Puritan  lack  of  tenderness  and  love,  as  well  as  a 
false  sentimentalism,  it  will  bring  to  Puritanism 
that  modern  interpretation  of  fundamental  Chris- 
tianity which  we  call  the  social  spirit,  with  its 


266     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

convictions  of  the  essential  likeness  of  all  men 
and  of  the  sacredness  of  every  personality.  It 
will  seek,  therefore,  to  embody  a  genuine  and 
reverent  love  for  men,  that  will  avoid  the  constant 
temptation  of  the  strong,  in  all  lines,  to  override 
the  less  aggressive  personality.  All  that  has  been 
said,  in  preceding  chapters,  concerning  reverence 
for  personality,  as  the  determining  principle  in 
human  development,  and  concerning  the  way  in 
which  modern  conditions,  external  and  inner, 
demand  at  every  point  the  manifestation  of  the 
social  consciousness  —  only  serves  to  accentuate 
the  need  of  this  first  and  well-nigh  all-inclusive 
supplement  to  the  Puritan  spirit.  Puritanism  was 
too  individualistic  to  be  possibly  at  home  in  the 
modern  world,  without  this  social  supplement  of  a 
genuine  and  reverent  love.  No  kind  of  revival  of 
Puritanism  can  be  permanently  effective,  that 
ignores  the  Puritan  weakness  at  this  essential  point. 
2.  And,  in  the  second  place,  as  contrasted  with 
the  Puritan  narrowness  of  interests,  as  well  as 
with  a  false  tolerance,  the  new  Puritanism  will 
bring  full  perception  of  the  breadth  and  complexity 
of  life.  It  will  see  clearly,  with  modern  psychology, 
the  necessity  of  a  wide  circle  of  interests  for  the 
health  and  sanity  of  the  human  spirit.     It  will 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  267 

not  doubt  the  essential  unity  of  human  life,  and 
the  close  relatedness  in  which  the  spiritual  stands 
to  all  the  rest  of  Hfe.  It  will  have  learned  fully 
the  lesson,  that  human  nature  avenges  itself  for 
any  disregard  of  the  wide  range  of  its  interests. 
It  will  not  yield,  therefore,  to  the  mediaeval  temp- 
tation to  abandon,  in  a  short-sighted  asceticism, 
whole  spheres  of  life.  For  this,  it  sees,  is  not  to 
conquer  in  the  name  of  the  higher  interests,  but 
really  to  surrender  the  claim  of  Christianity  to 
dominion  over  the  world.  It  may  not  forget,  as 
Fremantle  pointed  out,  that  not  only  the  indi- 
vidual soul,  but  the  world  in  all  the  wide  sweep  of 
its  interests,  is  the  subject  of  Christian  redemp- 
tion. In  full  view,  therefore,  of  the  whole  range 
of  human  activities,  in  complete  recognition  of 
the  breadth  and  complexity  of  life,  it  will  still  aim 
to  keep  the  supreme  values  truly  supreme.  It 
seeks  and  thus  attains  both  breadth  and  sim- 
plicity of  life.  In  this  paradoxical  combination  of 
breadth  and  simplicity  of  life  lies  no  small  part  of 
the  difi&cult  and  peculiar  task  of  the  new  Puritan- 
ism of  the  modern  day. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  the  new  Puritanism  will 
correct  the  Puritan  asceticism  and  underestimate 
of  beauty,  as  well  as  the  false  reahsm  and  false 


268     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

estheticism  of  our  own  time,  by  a  clear  recognition 
of  the  unity  of  the  life  of  man.  For  the  discern- 
ment of  the  unity  of  man's  entire  life  forbids  both 
a  false  realism  and  a  false  estheticism;  for  both 
disclose  their  essential  falsity,  in  that  they  have 
to  do,  after  all,  with  but  a  fragment  of  a  man. 
The  recognition  of  the  unity  of  man's  nature,  just 
as  certainly,  delivers  from  a  false  asceticism;  for 
it  makes  it  possible  to  mark  out  the  true  place  of 
self-denial  in  the  worthy  human  life.  The  problem 
deserves  careful  consideration,  for  it  greatly  con- 
cerns us  as  a  people. 

This  half  ascetic  element  in  the  Puritan  life  — 
the  spirit  of  self-denial  —  is,  perhaps,  the  one 
practical  element  of  Puritanism,  to  which  it  is 
most  difficult  to  do  justice.  One  cannot  help  see- 
ing, in  the  ascetic  leanings  of  Puritanism,  both 
an  element  of  undoubted  strength  and  a  morbid 
element  of  danger.  The  new  Puritanism  must 
learn  how  to  make  careful  discrimination  at  this 
point,  and  to  keep  the  strength  without  the  mor- 
bidness of  the  Puritan.  It  must  discover,  in  other 
words,  the  true  place  of  self-denial  in  the  conquer- 
ing life.  This  will  require  that  it  definitely  set 
aside  various  false  conceptions  of  the  meaning  of 
self-denial. 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  269 

It  must,  then,  perceive,  in  the  first  place,  that  a 
true  self-denial  does  not  choose  sufering  for  its  own 
sake.  It  does  not  argue,  as  so  many  earnest  souls 
have  been  inclined  to  argue,  in  the  past :  "  I 
know  it  is  my  duty  because  I  hate  it  so."  Duty, 
undoubtedly,  may  at  times  seem  difficult  and  un- 
attractive enough ;  but  the  hating  of  a  course  of 
action  is  not  reason  for  believing  it  duty.  No 
suffering  is  to  be  chosen  simply  as  suffering. 
This  is  neither  wisdom  nor  courage,  but  perver- 
sion of  aim  and  bravado,  that  is  quite  certain  ta 
end  in  a  false  and  petty  pride. 

True  self-denial,  in  the  second  place,  has  no 
room  for  the  ascetic  assumption  that  the  body  is  evil 
per  se.  It  accepts  its  physical  life,  like  its  mental 
and  spiritual,  as  a  good  gift  of  God  and  alike  a 
part  of  his  creation.  It  knows,  indeed,  that  the 
body,  like  any  other  good  gift,  can  be  abused ; 
and  it  does  not  deceive  itself  concerning  the 
temptations  that  may  come  through  it.  Never- 
theless, it  refuses  to  substitute  a  pagan  concep- 
tion of  the  body  for  the  Christian.  It  does  not 
despise  the  body.  It  will  not  abuse  the  body. 
It  sees  clearly  that  the  flesh,  as  flesh,  is  not  evil. 

Nor  can  the  new  Puritanism  ever  think  of  such 
self-denial  as  it  takes  on,  as  a  work  of  extra  merit 


270     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

and  supererogation.  Duty  commands  that  man 
should  be  true  to  his  best  insight.  He  cannot  be 
more  than  that.  And  to  take  on  conduct  beyond 
the  vision  of  clear  duty,  is  not  to  add  to  duty's 
real  achievement,  but  to  detract  from  it.  But  it 
is  peculiarly  difficult  to  escape  this  feeling  of 
extra  merit  for  unnecessary  hardships  voluntarily 
taken  on.  Men  are  likely  to  be  particularly 
proud  of  the  little  asceticisms  that  they  have 
sought  out  or  devised  for  themselves;  and  they 
readily  exalt  them  into  the  supreme  place  in 
moral  achievement.  Whereas,  in  reality,  they 
hold  uncommon  danger  for  the  more  prosaic  but 
infinitely  more  worthy  virtues  of  the  common 
life,  as  the  history  of  the  race  in  asceticism,  phari- 
saism,  and  Puritanism  abundantly  shows.  A  true 
self-denial  must  make  certain  that  it  is  not  be- 
trayed into  this  evil  by-path  of  a  fancied  excess  of 
merit.  If  the  particular  self-denial  taken  on  were 
justified  at  all,  it  was  either  because  one  needed 
it  for  his  own  life,  or  because  service  of  others 
demanded  it.  In  either  case  duty  requires  it, 
and  there  is  no  room  for  extra  merit  or  for  excess 
of  pride. 

;-  Nor  may  the  man  who  has  found  some  particular 
self-denial  of  value  to  himself  forthwith  erect  this 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  271 

abstinence  of  his  own  into  a  perpetual  standard 
for  all  other  lives.  Where  much  is  made  of  the  self- 
denial  for  its  own  sake,  this  is  practically  certain  to 
result.  Men  are  seldom  able  not  to  erect  some 
small  asceticism  of  their  own  into  a  fixed  standard 
for  the  judgment  of  others.  The  man  who  goes 
without  breakfast  is  pretty  certain  to  feel  that  the 
army  of  breakfast-eaters  are  a  degenerate  race. 
So  surely  as  various  minor  self-denials  are  con- 
tinuously needed  for  individual  men,  just  so  surely 
must  the  man,  who  would  give  self-denial  its  true 
place,  guard  against  this  insidious  tendency  to  make 
one's  own  pet  asceticisms  into  a  general  norm  of 
human  conduct.  The  new  Puritanism  will  per- 
ceive, thus,  that  the  true  act  of  self-denial  cannot 
be  made  forthwith  an  external  test  of  righteousness 
for  other  men.  There  are  no  such  external  tests. 
The  new  Puritanism,  moreover,  will  never  imagine 
that  self-denial,  to  whatever  lengths  it  may  be 
carried,  can  give,  in  itself,  positiveness  of  life.  It 
is  means  only.  It  is  not  itself  love,  but,  so  far  as  it 
has  meaning  at  all,  it  is  but  a  method  of  love.  Its 
entire  justification  lies  there.  ''If  I  bestow  all 
my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  give  my  body 
to  be  burned,  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me 
nothing." 


272      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

It  is  imperative,  not  only  for  clearness  of  think- 
ing, but  for  the  soundness  of  the  moral  life,  that  we 
should  thus  clearly  distinguish  the  true  self-denial 
from  all  false  asceticism.  But  the  very  strength  and 
persistence  of  the  imitations  suggest  the  impor- 
tance of  true  self-denial.  The  new  Puritanism  will 
not  doubt  that  self-denial  must  have  a  real  place  in 
all  worthy  hfe.  And  face  to  face  with  the  enormous 
material  development  of  the  modern  world  and  its 
dangers  for  the  ideal  life,  we  shall  feel  again  the 
stern  call  to  such  simple  living  and  such  self-denial 
as  the  Puritan  could  bear.  We  shall  not  make 
again  the  mistake  of  asceticism,  of  regarding  self- 
denial  as  an  end  in  itself,  but  we  shall  take  on  under- 
standingly  and  whole-heartedly  all  that  self-denial 
that  is  valuable  for  the  individual  himself,  as 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  hygiene ;  all  that  self- 
denial  that,  though  the  individual  himself  may  not 
feel  its  need,  is  fairly  demanded  by  the  good  of  the 
whole  community;  and  all  the  self-denial  that  is 
further  involved  in  the  full  subordination  of  all  the 
lesser  goods  to  the  greater,  and  in  the  clear  recog- 
nition that  a  man  is  made  for  heroic  service,  and 
cannot  himself  be  largely  and  finally  satisfied  in 
passive  self-indulgence.  From  all  these  various 
points  of  view  we  shall  hear  again  the  challenge  of 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  273 

the  ancient  voice:    ''Take   thy  part  in  suffering 
hardship  as  a  good  soldier  of  Christ  Jesus." 

(i)  First  of  all,  self-denial  is  needed  for  positive 
self -discipline,  for  mental  and  moral  hygiene.  It  is 
no  abuse  of  the  body ;  but  builds  rather  on  careful 
study  of  bodily  laws  and  conditions  ;  and  it  thereby 
takes  on  all  self-denial  that  is  helpful  to  the  attain- 
ment of  one's  highest  self.  It  is  the  method  by 
which  a  man  seeks  to  maintain  himself  persistently 
at  his  best,  —  seeks  to  be  true  to  the  vision  of  his 
best  moments.  And  it  requires  far  greater  self- 
mastery  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  body  in  the  main- 
tenance of  one's  bodily  best,  than,  in  a  false  ascet- 
icism, simply  to  abuse  the  body.  All  efficiency  — 
of  which  we  are  talking  much  in  these  days  —  goes 
back  finally  to  personal  efficiency,  and  there  are 
many  things  to  indicate  that  it  is  still  true  that  the 
individual  is  nowhere  counting  to  his  full  capacity. 
Probably  most  of  us,  by  the  practice  of  a  more 
scientific  and  earnestly  moral  self-control,  have  a 
distinctly  higher  type  of  life  and  a  larger  and  finer 
service  within  our  reach.  The  chief  objection  to 
the  use  of  intoxicating  liquor  and  tobacco  probably 
lies  just  here.  As  shnply  an  abnormal  use  of  the 
nervous  system,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  these 
intoxicant   and   narcotic   habits   are   to   hold   the 


274      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

future;  and  they  will  do  so  the  less,  the  more  in- 
sistent becomes  the  scientific  demand  for  avoidance 
of  waste  —  of  money,  of  time,  of  nerve,  of  energy, 
of  high  quality  of  work. 

(2)  The  new  Puritanism  will  take  on,  in  the 
second  place,  all  self-denial  that  is  valuable  for  others, 
—  for  the  common  life  of  all.  It  will  not  hesitate 
to  sacrifice  its  personal  gratification  where  a  com- 
munity good  is  at  stake ;  and  some  men  will  always 
be  ready  to  take  on,  for  example,  total  abstinence 
from  intoxicating  liquor,  for  this  reason,  who  would 
not  have  felt  abstinence  necessary  for  their  own 
sake.  Indeed,  if  the  community  has  the  right  to 
demand  from  its  locomotive  engineers,  for  the 
greater  protection  and  more  efficient  service  of  the 
public,  total  abstinence,  it  can  hardly  be  denied 
that  it  has  a  like  right  to  demand  from  its  great 
financial,  political,  and  social  engineers  a  similar 
freedom  from  befuddhng  conditions.  The  fabric 
of  national  life  is  a  seamless  robe.  The  connections 
are  marvelously  close,  and  are  becoming  more  so 
with  every  year.  The  community  may  suffer  less 
immediately  and  obviously  by  the  selfish  intem- 
perance of  financial  or  educational  magnates  than 
by  the  befuddled  brains  of  the  locomotive  engineer ; 
but  in  the  end  the  danger  is  Hkely  to  be  greater. 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  275 

The  best  brains  and  the  most  unselfish  purposes  are 
none  too  good  for  the  tasks  which  confront  the 
modern  state.  And  it  is  one  of  the  standing  dis- 
graces of  the  educational  world,  that  in  the  discern- 
ment of  the  personal  need  of  temperance,  it  should 
not  only  have  been  in  general  no  leader,  but  should 
have  lagged  far  behind  great  industrial  corporations. 
Nor  is  it  merely  at  this  point  that  self-denial  for 
the  sake  of  the  common  good  is  required.  It  is 
quite  impossible  to  face  the  various  forms  of  social 
maladjustment  in  our  national  life,  as  we  shall 
later  find,  without  seeing  that  they  all  demand 
both  unselfish  leadership  and  unselfish  community 
cooperation,  if  they  are  to  be  even  approximately 
righted.  As  Croly  puts  it,  "the  promise  of  Ameri- 
can life  is  to  be  fulfilled  —  not  merely  by  a  maxi- 
mum amount  of  economic  freedom,  but  by  a  certain 
measure  of  discipline ;  not  merely  by  the  abundant 
satisfaction  of  individual  desires,  but  by  a  large 
measure  of  individual  subordination  and  self- 
denial.  And  this  necessity  of  subordinating  the 
satisfaction  of  individual  desires  to  the  fulfillment 
of  a  national  purpose  is  attached  particularly  to  the 
absorbing  occupation  of  the  American  people,  — 
the  occupation,  viz.:  of  accumulating  wealth."^ 

^  The  Promise  of  American  Life,  p.  22. 


276     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

(3)  And  the  new  Puritanism,  in  trying  to  keep, 
in  the  spirit  of  self-denial,  the  truth  of  the  Puritan 
asceticism,  while  rejecting  its  weakness,  will  be 
clear,  in  the  third  place,  that  a  true  self-denial 
means  that  the  relative  goods  must  be  kept  in  their 
relative  place;  that  the  great  demand  of  all  higher 
living  is  to  keep  the  first  things  first.  The  simple 
life,  in  other  words,  is  no  mere  matter  of  the  posses- 
sion of  things,  few  or  many.  True  simpHcity  lies 
not  in  a  man's  circumstances,  but  in  his  spirit. 
SimpHcity  of  Hfe  is  an  achievement.  It  is  no  in- 
heritance. And  it  is  truly  achieved  only  by  those 
who,  while  they  deny  the  value  of  none  of  the  lesser 
goods,  nevertheless  unhesitatingly  sacrifice  the  lesser 
to  the  greater,  the  temporary  to  the  permanent, 
the  relative  to  the  absolute,  —  who  know  that,  not 
only  the  evil,  but  even  the  good  is  the  enemy  of  the 
best,  and  who  seek  persistently  the  best.  We  have 
already  seen  how  specifically  modern  conditions  call 
for  just  this  subordination  of  the  lesser  goods. 

(4)  For  the  new  Puritanism,  true  self-denial  will 
mean,  further,  the  clear  recognition  of  man's  heroic 
mold.  It  will  not  think  too  meanly  of  man,  but  will 
see  that  he  is  made,  in  his  very  nature,  body  and 
soul,  for  action,  for  self-mastery,  for  conquest,  for 
the  highest  personal  relations,  and  that,  therefore, 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  277 

he  cannot  finally  be  satisfied,  even  as  to  happiness, 
to  say  nothing  of  achievement  in  character,  with 
mere    passive    self-indulgence.     There    is    here    a 
peculiar  challenge  to  all  our  higher  education.     If 
it  belongs  to  the  college  and  university  to  fit  for 
living,  —  to  furnish  in  peculiar  degree  those  who  are 
to  be  the  social  leaven  of  the  nation  and  of  the  world, 
then  the  college  and  the  university  may  least  of  all 
forget  the  full  meaning  of  life  and  of  man,  and  man's 
heroic  mold.     And  they  must  awaken  the  deepest 
and  the  best  in  young  men  and  women,  and  enable 
them  to  respond  with  joy  to  that  heroic  service  for 
which,   after  all,   human  nature   craves.     It  is  a 
mean  and  petty  education  in  which  deep  calls  not 
unto  deep.     And  the  standards  of  self-indulgence 
with  which  some  college  communities  seem  content 
are  a  disgrace  to  the  name  of  education,  to  say 
nothing  of  religion.     The  simple  fact  is,  that  there 
is  still  a  widespread  willingness  to  condone  and 
defend   college   dissipation   and   lawlessness,    that 
must  be  regarded  as  thoroughly  illogical  and  out  of 
date.     The  true  situation  is  this  :  in  its  college  and 
university  students,  the  nation  sets  large  numbers 
free  from  productive  labor,  for  the  high  and  special 
privilege  of  long  training  for  leadership.     Every 
obligation  of  honor  binds  these  to  be  not  less,  but 


278     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

more  scrupulously  law-abiding  and  self-controlled 
than  others.  Special  privileges  in  the  world's 
democracy  have  just  one  possible  justification  —  a 
correspondingly  great  special  fidelity  and  special 
service.  Where  teachers  or  students  forget  this, 
they  stultify  themselves.  This  is  not  an  exalted 
standard,  but  only  the  minimum  of  obligation. 

It  was  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  new  Puritanism 
that  the  editor  of  Life  wrote  some  time  since,  after 
the  death  of  a  distinguished  politician:  "Here 
was  a  life  of  great  promise,  vehemently  lived  and 
bewilderingly  successful.  But  the  man  was  first- 
rate,  and  the  success  was  only  second-rate.  He 
made  quantities  of  money;  his  friends  hked  him. 
He  had  a  dozen  estates ;  he  had  horses  and  pic- 
tures and  palaces  and  rare  objects  of  art ;  toys,  all 
of  them,  and  nothing  more.  He  could  not  help 
being  a  rich  man,  for  the  stuff  was  in  him,  but  his 
huge  fortune,  making  possible  his  huge  expenditures, 
surely  cost  him  more  than  it  was  worth.  It  made 
his  friends  regretful;  it  made  him  prefer  his  own 
interests  to  ours.  .  .  .  And  at  the  last  the  wagon 
that  should  have  been  hitched  to  a  star  followed  a 
race-horse,  and  he  seemed  content  to  have  it  so. 
.  .  .  The  flesh  was  a  Httle  too  strong  for  him ; 
the  world's  more  garish  allurements  somewhat  too 


THE   NEW   PURITANISM  279 

enticing.  It  might  hardly  be  kind,  or  worth  while, 
to  say  so,  if  he  did  not  illustrate  so  faithfully  a 
tendency  of  all  of  us,  in  this  generation,  to  think 
of  money  as  the  chief  good,  and  of  the  pleasures 
that  can  be  bought  as  preferable  to  the  more 
austere  but  loftier  delights  that  come  of  sticking 
close  to  duty.  .  .  .  He  would  have  been  a  greater, 
and,  no  doubt,  a  more  truly  happy  man,  if  he  had 
taken  less  thought  for  money  and  for  pleasure,  and 
more  for  the  eternal  verities  and  for  us."  It  is 
a  true  estimate  of  values  which  here  expresses 
itself.  And  when  a  comic  journal  feels  the  call 
so  to  speak,  the  need  of  something  like  a  new 
Puritanism  in  our  national  life  can  hardly  be 
questioned. 

It  is  no  narrow  fanaticism,  for  which  the  new 
Puritanism,  to  which  our  study  has  brought  us, 
stands.  The  ideal  set  forth  belongs  in  all  its  parts 
to  our  natural  inheritance.  It  preserves,  first  of 
all,  the  great  spiritual  positives  of  the  Puritans : 
the  prophetic  vision  of  God  and  the  spiritual  world, 
the  apostolic  conviction  of  divine  commission,  the 
stern  upgirding  sense  of  responsibility  and  account- 
ability, and  the  consequent  pervading  assurance  of 
the  significance  and  value  of  life.  It  has  fully 
learned,  also,  the  lessons  of  the  reaction  from  Puri- 


28o     THE    MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

tanism ;  and,  therefore,  shuns  both  the  austerity 
that  is  irreverent  of  personahty  and  a  senti- 
mentahsm  that  knows  no  true  love ;  both  narrow- 
ness and  a  false  tolerance;  both  a  false  asceticism 
and  contempt  of  beauty,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  false 
realism  and  a  false  estheticism,  on  the  other  hand. 
And  it  adds,  thus,  to  the  positives  of  the  Pu- 
ritans the  great  positives  of  the  modern  spirit : 
the  supreme  demand  for  a  genuine  and  reverent 
love  ;  the  perception  of  the  breadth  and  complexity 
of  life ;  and  the  recognition  of  the  unity  of  man's 
nature.  It  can,  then,  be  loyal  both  to  the  scientific 
spirit  and  the  social  consciousness  of  the  modern 
world,  and  do  justice,  at  the  same  time,  to  the 
powerful  element  of  self-denial  in  the  Puritan.  It 
believes,  therefore,  in  a  vigorous  personal  hygiene 
—  physical,  mental,  and  moral ;  it  believes  in  all 
that  self-denial  that  is  demanded  by  the  common 
weal ;  it  beheves  in  the  steady  subordination  of 
the  lesser  to  the  greater  goods ;  it  believes  in  man's 
greatness,  —  in  his  heroic  mold,  and  that  he  can, 
consequently,  never  be  satisfied  in  mere  self-indul- 
gence. The  new  Puritanism  calls  the  nation, 
therefore,  at  once,  to  a  deeper  spirituality,  to  a 
sounder  and  broader  view  of  man,  and  to  a  vigilant 
and  victorious  moral  life.     And  it  beheves  that  all 


THE    NEW   PURITANISM  28 1 

are  necessary,  not  alone  for  the  individual,  but  for 
all  true  greatness  in  the  national  life  as  well.  Only 
so  can  America  fully  meet  the  challenge  of  the 
modern  time. 

"Not  in  the  camp  his  victory  lies 
Or  triumph  in  the  market-place, 
Who  is  his  Nation's  sacrifice 

To  turn  the  judgment  from  his  race. 

"Happy  is  he  who,  bred  and  taught 
By  sleek,  sufficing  Circumstance  — 
Whose  Gospel  was  the  apparelled  thought, 
Whose  Gods  were  Luxury  and  Chance  — 

"Sees,  on  the  threshold  of  his  days, 
The  old  life  shrivel  hke  a  scroll, 
And  to  unheralded  dismays 
Submits  his  body  and  his  soul ; 

"The  fatted  shows  wherein  he  stood 
Foregoing,  and  the  idiot  pride, 
That  he  may  prove  with  his  own  blood 
All  that  his  easy  sires  denied  — 

"  Ultimate  issues,  primal  springs, 

Demands,  abasements,  penalties  — 
The  imperishable  plinth  of  things 

Seen  and  unseen,  that  touch  our  peace. 

"The  yoke  he  bore  shall  press  him  still. 
And  long-ingrained  effort  goad 
To  find,  to  fashion,  and  fulfil 
The  cleaner  Kfe,  the  sterner  code. 


282     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

"Not  in  the  camp  his  victory  lies  — 
The  world  {unheeding  his  return) 
Shall  see  it  in  his  children's  eyes 
And  from  his  grandson's  lips  shall  learn!"  ^ 

1  Kipling,  The  Reformers. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  Our  Own 
National  Life  II :  The  Guiding  Principle 
IN  Race  Antagonisms 

If  America  is  to  meet,  in  any  adequate  fashion, 
the  challenge  of  the  modern  age,  it  is  obvious  that 
it  must  not  only  come  to  terms  with  its  inherited 
Puritan  ideal,  with  all  that  that  implies ;  but  must 
also  specifically  face  its  great  peculiar  problem  of 
relation  to  the  negro  race.  There  has  been  forced 
upon  us,  again  and  again,  in  the  course  of  our 
discussion,  the  primary  and  essential  significance 
of  reverence  for  the  personahty,  as  a  guiding  prin- 
ciple in  human  development.  We  cannot  pretend, 
therefore,  even  superficially,  to  have  faced  the 
challenge  of  the  times,  if  we  refuse  to  note  with  care 
the  bearing  of  this  principle  upon  the  negro  problem. 

How  serious  and  pressing  that  problem  is,  no 
thoughtful  man,  white  or  black,  north  or  south, 
needs  to  be  told.     Its  very  vastness  is  appalling. 

283 


284     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

We  have  seen  the  negroes  in  the  United  States 
increase,  since  the  war,  from  four  milHons  to  ten 
miUions  ■ —  a  whole  nation  in  themselves,  a  popu- 
lation greater  than  that  of  the  entire  country  in 
1820.  The  difficulty  and  delicacy,  too,  of  the  ques- 
tions arising  out  of  the  relations  between  races 
that  seem  markedly  different  cannot  be  ignored. 
And  in  the  more  recent  years,  with  diminished  feel- 
ing and  interest  and  education  in  the  momentous- 
ness  of  the  issues  involved,  there  has  been  observ- 
able, even  in  the  north,  an  increasing  willingness 
to  hold  the  negro  simply  to  menial  service,  and  to 
forbid  him  the  right,  as  far  as  possible,  to  any 
higher  aspiration.  Now  neither  prejudice  nor  sec- 
tionalism nor  denunciation  nor  declamation,  nor 
the  stirring  of  race  hatred  —  least  of  all,  —  can 
possibly  avail  anything  in  the  solution  of  this 
peculiarly  difficult  problem.  Each  and  all  —  they 
can  only  further  complicate  the  problem,  and 
postpone  its  just  settlement. 

We  need  the  clarifying,  calming,  and  steady- 
ing power  of  great  principles,  nowhere  more  than 
here,  where  prejudice  and  passion  are  so  easily 
aroused.  Surely  we  want  to  know  the  truth,  the 
path  of  real  justice,  and  to  follow  it.  The  his- 
tory of  the  race  should  make  clear  that  no  ques- 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  285 

tion  can  be  settled  until  it  is  settled  right. 
And  we  can  be  perfectly  certain  that  we  cannot 
here  lightly  turn  our  backs  on  that  principle, 
which  we  have  seen  to  be  an  absolutely  basic 
moral  and  Christian  principle,  a  principle  whose 
dominion  is  demanded  by  modern  conditions 
at  multiplied  points,  and  a  principle  that  has 
proved  itself  the  supreme  test  of  civilizations  in 
human  history.  Only  one  principle  can  guide  us 
in  the  difficulties  of  the  relations  of  race  to  race  — 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  absolutely  un- 
affected by  color  or  race  connection.  This,  then, 
is  the  constant  challenge  of  our  national  life,  — 
whether  we  are  to  be  true,  as  individuals  and  as  a 
nation,  to  this  principle  of  reverence  for  personality. 
And  the  spirit  of  reverence  for  the  person  has  its 
severest  test  in  the  relations  of  race  to  race,  and 
most  of  all  in  the  relations  of  blacks  and  whites. 
No  more  difficult,  no  more  delicate,  no  more  vital 
problem,  thus  confronts  the  American  people  than 
the  problem  of  the  true  relation  of  white  and  black 
in  this  nation.  And  in  these  race  relations  we  may 
be  perfectly  certain  that  no  evasion,  no  compro- 
mise, no  merely  mechanical  method,  can  give  us 
peace  at  last.  Nothing  less  than  genuine  loyalty 
to   this   one   deep-going,    far-reaching,   fructifying 


286     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

principle  of  reverence  for  the  person  can  solve  our 
problem,  or  put  us  in  the  way  of  solving  it. 

We  may  not  deny  the  gravity  of  the  issue.  Both 
whites  and  blacks,  north  and  south,  are  here  on 
trial  as  nowhere  else.  Are  we  together  to  be  equal 
to  the  emergency?  Dare  we  attempt  soberly, 
thoughtfully,  and  with  all  charity,  to  apply  this 
great  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person  to  the 
relations  of  the  two  races  ?  In  our  initial  chapter, 
we  found  that  this  principle  always  involved  both 
fundamental  self-respect  and  respect  for  the 
personality  of  others.  Let  us  try  to  see  what  this 
would  mean  in  the  relations  of  these  races. 


SELF-RESPECT 

I.  First  of  all,  then,  there  must  be  self-respect  on 
both  sides.  The  negro  must  respect  himself  and  his 
race.  All  the  circumstances  of  his  history  have 
made  imitation  of  the  whites  more  easy  and 
natural,  and  yet  his  future  demands  self-reverence 
as  nothing  else.  Let  him  hear  Emerson  saying : 
"Trust  thyself;  every  heart  vibrates  to  that  iron 
string."  And  let  him  say  with  Emerson,  though 
in  no  spirit  of  shallow,  un teachable  conceit:   "We 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  287 

will  walk  on  our  own  feet ;  we  will  work  with  our 
own  hands;  we  will  speak  our  own  mind."  Let 
him  be  sure  of  the  truth  of  Tennyson's  golden 
words  : 

"Self-knowledge,  self-reverence,  self-control, 
These  three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power." 

Let  him  take  to  heart  Whitman's  direct  exhortation 
to  him:  "Commence  to-day  to  inure  yourself  to 
pluck,  reality,  self-esteem,  definiteness,  elevated- 
ness."  One  may  be  glad  that  the  Colored  National 
Baptist  Association  approved  the  movement  to 
supply  negro  children  with  well-formed  negro  dolls. 
As  Collier's  says,  "there  is  more  involved  than 
appears  on  the  surface  in  encouraging  little  negro 
girls  to  clasp  in  their  arms  pretty  replicas  of  them- 
selves. The  white  race  does  not  monopolize  beauty 
or  lovableness,  and  it  will  be  a  happier  day  for  all 
when  this  is  realized." 

And  self-respect  requires,  first  of  all,  that 
a  man  should  really  deserve  respect,  that  he 
should  know  that  he  has  a  calling  of  his  own 
to  fulfill  and  means  to  have  self-control  enough  to 
fulfill  it,  —  that  he  should  not  fail  in  those  condi- 
tions which  give  the  qualities  of  character  or  influ- 
ence, whether  his  achievement  is  recognized  or  not. 
But  if  he  fulfill  the  conditions  of  self-respect,  he 


288     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

can  hardly  fail  of  winning  ultimately  the  respect  of 
others.  The  negro  has  the  hard  task,  which  con- 
fronts every  growing  man  and  every  developing 
race,  to  make  himself  capable,  valuable,  indis- 
pensable:  capabb  of  self-support,  and  of  work 
that  needs  doing;  having  a  valuable  individual 
and  racial  contribution  to  make;  then,  with  his 
marked  individuality,  finally  demonstrating  that 
the  nation  cannot  spare  him,  that  his  unique  con- 
tribution is  indispensable  to  the  perfected  national 
life. 

The  first  step,  undoubtedly,  is  self-support, 
—  some  financial  independence.  And  Booker 
Washington  is  probably  right  in  the  emphasis  that 
he  places  upon  this;  just  because  such  financial 
independence  is,  inevitably,  so  considerable  an 
element  in  self-respect.  It  is  not  a  merely  material 
goal  that  is  here  sought.  And  when  one  remembers 
that  in  fifty  years  the  negroes  have  passed  from  the 
condition  of  being  owned  chattels  to  the  ownership 
of  six  hundred  million  dollars  in  property,  he  can- 
not fail  to  feel  that  great  progress  has  been  made. 
It  is  in  line  with  this  conviction  of  the  importance 
of  financial  independence,  that  Sir  Harry  H. 
Johnston  writes:  "The  one  undoubted  solution 
of  the  Negro's  difficulties  throughout  the  world  is 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  289 

for  him  to  turn  his  strong  arms  and  sturdy  legs,  his 
fine  sight,  subtle  hearing,  deft  fingers,  and  rapidly- 
developed  brain  to  the  making  of  Money,  money 
being  indeed  but  transmuted  intellect  and  work, 
accumulated   energy   and   courage."  ^ 

All  this  means  that  the  negro  must  know  himself, 
must  come  to  consciousness,  find  himself,  see  his 
own  individuality,  —  his  own  possible  contribution 
to  the  race  and  to  the  life  and  work  of  the  world, 
and  believe  in  the  value  of  that  for  which  it  is  given 
him  to  stand.  He  must  not  allow  himself  to  be  be- 
trayed into  a  mere  imitation  of  the  whites,  that  must 
necessarily  shut  him  out  from  his  own  true  self  and 
service.  He  cannot  afford,  the  nation  cannot  af- 
ford, that  he  should  be  a  mere  echo  of  the  whites. 
Let  the  negro,  then,  first  of  all,  believe  in  himself ; 
let  him  develop  —  what  some  of  his  wisest  leaders 
seem  genuinely  to  have  —  real  race  pride,  and  pride 
in  association  with  his  race.  Let  him  take  pride  in 
his  race's  marked  individuality  —  for  no  race  is 
more  individual  —  in  its  unique  endowments  and 
possibilities.  Elaborate  deductions  of  negro  music 
from  other  music  have  been  attempted ;  but  the 
very  fact  that  the  deduction  has  to  be  so  labored 
and  extended,  indicates  that  the  negro  has  at  least 

1  The  Negro  in  The  New  World,  p.  xii. 


290     THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

a  marked  and  peculiar  musical  endowment.  It 
would  be  an  immense  pity  to  lose  out  of  our  national 
life  the  singularly  appealing  power  of  the  genuine 
negro  melodies.  Both  white  and  black  may  well 
remember,  too,  that  practically  the  only  original 
folklore  the  nation  has,  is  negro  folklore,  though 
it  has  been  interpreted  to  us  by  a  southern  white. 
And  who  would  willingly  let  die  the  delicate  quaint- 
ness  of  humor  and  imagination  of  ''Uncle  Remus" 
and  "Daddy  Jack"? 

Both  whites  and  blacks  may  be  reminded,  also, 
that,  as  a  great  philosopher  has  pointed  out,  the 
qualities  that  have  made  the  Anglo-Saxon  so 
often  dominant  are  not  altogether  enviable  quali- 
ties ;  they  have  their  distinctly  ungenerous,  hard, 
selfish,  domineering  side,  that  any  race  may  well 
avoid.  The  so-called  "John  Bull  attitude"  the 
negro  need  not  envy.  As  contrasted  with  this, 
the  pure  negro  seems  often  to  have  a  tempera- 
mental kindliness  of  disposition,  a  good-nature, 
a  readiness  to  make  the  most  of  a  situation,  and 
to  find  none  insufferable,  that,  while  it  may  often 
be  an  obstacle  to  advancement,  has  a  great  gift 
to  make  to  the  contentment  and  happiness  of  life. 
It  is  possible  to  make  Hfe  quite  too  strenuous, 
to  live  so  completely  in  the  future  as  never  really 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  291 

to  live  in  the  present,  —  to  take  no  enjoyment  in 
life  as  it  passes.  And  this  is  the  certain  danger 
of  the  American  rush.  The  negro's  tendency  to 
content  —  while  undoubtedly  a  temptation  to 
laziness  —  has  in  it,  thus,  a  real  element  of  strength, 
and  much  suggestion  for  an  over-enterprising  people 
that  has  become  frantic  in  its  haste. 

All  these  characteristics  of  the  negro  are  con- 
nected with  his  unusual  emotional  endowment. 
And  the  whites  may  well  be  on  their  guard  against 
that  "certain  blindness  in  human  beings  "  which 
should  keep  them  from  at  least  some  imaginative 
appreciation  of  the  powers  of  insight,  revelation, 
and  enjoyment  involved  in  such  emotional  ca- 
pacities. Dangers,  this  immense  emotional  endow- 
ment surely  has ;  but  let  one  measure  its  worth  by 
remembering  that  the  sense  of  reality  itself  roots 
in  feeHng,.  and  by  recalling  the  difference  between 
the  hours  in  which  life  seems  cold  and  dead,  and 
those  in  which,  in  warmth  of  feeling,  his  being 
tingles  with  the  sense  of  Hfe's  meaning. 

And  we  may  not  forget  —  what  Stanley  Hall 
and  Booker  Washington  have  both  recalled  — 
the  positive  genius  which  the  negro  seems  to  have 
for  religion.  His  natural  religious  endowment  is 
probably  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  race,  unless  it 


292     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

be  the  Jewish.  And  the  modern  Jew  is  hardly  his 
rival  here.  That  his  religious  feeling  needs  much 
intelligent  direction  is  undoubted,  but  quite 
unwonted  religious  capacity  he  certainly  has.  He 
is  a  natural  seer;  and  the  more  utilitarian  the 
triumphs  of  the  race,  the  less  can  it  spare  the  negro, 
with  his  undying  sense  of  another  world  and 
another  life  and  of  the  presence  of  God  in  the 
world. 

And  is  there  any  finer  record  of  fidelity  in  the 
world's  history  than  that  of  the  negro  attendants 
of  Livingstone,  in  their  bringing  back  of  his  dead 
body  to  his  English  friends,  in  spite  of  the  enormous 
difficulties  of  that  nine  months'  journey?  When 
I  stand  under  the  arches  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
at  Livingstone's  tomb,  I  bow  my  head,  not  alone 
in  reverence  for  the  heroic  soul  whose  body  lies 
beneath,  but  also  for  the  marvelous  fidelity  of  his 
lowly  negro  attendants,  who  alone  made  it  possible 
that  his  mortal  remains  should  find  there  their 
resting  place. 

No  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  negro  mind  has 
been  here  attempted ;  but  it  is  suggested  that  such 
qualities  as  these  may  well  make  the  decriers  of  the 
negro  hesitate,  and  give  to  the  negro  himself  a 
just  race  pride.     The  very  fact  that  he  naturally 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  293 

excites  such  race  antipathy,  indicates  that  he  has  a 
rarely  marked  race  individuality ;  and  that  of  itself 
is  promise,  on  the  one  hand,  of  much  compensation 
for  himself,  and,  on  the  other,  of  power  to  render 
an  indispensable  service  to  mankind.  The  negro, 
then,  must  relentlessly  deny  himself  the  weakening 
luxury  of  self-pity,  great  as  the  temptations  to  it 
are.  He  may  justly  respect  himself  and  take  pride 
in  his  race.  For  I  cannot  doubt  that  President 
Stanley  Hall  is  abundantly  justified  when  he  says 
that  if  the  negro  can  be  made  to  accept  without 
"  corroding  self-pity  his  present  situation,  prejudice 
and  all,  hard  as  it  is,  take  his  stand  squarely  upon 
the  feet  of  his  race,  respect  its  unique  gifts,  develop 
all  its  possibilities,  make  himself  the  best  possible 
black  man,  and  not  desire  to  be  a  brunette  imitation 
of  the  Caucasian,  he  will  in  coming  generations 
fill  a  place  of  great  importance  and  of  pride  both  to 
himself  and  to  us  in  the  future  of  the  republic." 

And  just  because  the  negro  respects  himself,  and 
for  his  own  sake,  he  will  not  press  the  demand,  or 
make  a  bitter  struggle,  for  so-called  social  equality. 
I  say  "so-called"  social  equality;  for  real  social 
equality  is  giving  to  all  equal  opportunities  of  social 
development  and  enjoyment,  not  at  all  necessarily 
prescribing  just  what  associates  any  should  have. 


294     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

No  one  could  ask  that  this  point  should  be  put 
more  admirably  than  that  clear-sighted  negro, 
Professor  Kelly  Miller,  has  put  it:  "The  negro's 
sense  of  self-respect  effectively  forbids  forcing  him- 
self upon  any  unwelcome  association.  Household 
intercourse  and  domestic  familiarity  are  essentially 
questions  of  personal  privilege.  .  .  .  The  negro  is 
building  up  his  own  society,  based  upon  character, 
culture,  and  the  nice  amenities  of  life,  and  can  find 
ample  satisfaction  within  the  limits  of  his  own  race. 
.  .  .  But  the  negro  ought  not  to  be  expected  to 
accept  that  interpretation  of  social  equality  which 
would  rob  him  of  political  and  civil  rights  as  well  as 
of  educational  and  industrial  opportunity.  .  .  . 
The  negro  and  the  white  man  in  this  country  must 
live  together  for  all  time  which  we  can  foresee. 
They  must  mingle  in  business  and  in  public  life. 
All  their  relations  should  be  characterized  by 
mutual  respect,  courtesy,  and  good-will.  In  all 
purely  personal  and  social  matters  let  each,  if  he 
will,  go  unto  his  own  company."  Professor  Miller 
is  here  only  claiming  for  his  own  people  the  attitude 
which  The  Independent  recommends  to  the  Jews : 
"Jews  can  make  their  own  social  world  like  other 
people,  and  there  are  ways  in  plenty  to  meet  others 
socially  if  they  want  to,  even  though  certain  clubs 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  295 

and  resorts  exclude  them.  Where  they  are  not 
wanted  they  will  not  want  to  go.  Men  and  women 
must  choose  their  own  company,  and  not  feel  hurt 
if  kissing  goes  by  favor." 

Like  a  self-respecting  man,  then,  who  does  not 
wish  to  go  where  he  is  not  wanted,  the  negro  may 
well  remember  that  he  has  in  good  degree  the  self- 
sufficiency  that  belongs  to  any  race.  He  is  not  to 
be  shut  out  of  life  nor  from  any  of  the  best  things 
of  life,  simply  because  he  is  shut  away  from  the 
whites.  In  no  bitter  and  in  no  exclusive  spirit, 
let  him  say  to  himself,  "As  truly  as  any  race,  my 
race  can  be  self-sufficient."  For  his  own  sake,  at 
present  at  least,  this  probably  means  that  it  is 
wiser  and  more  self-respecting  not  to  fight  separate 
schools,  separate  cars,  etc.,  provided  only  that  the 
accommodations  are  the  same,  and  that  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  races  is  truly  maintained,  in  that  the 
schools  and  cars  of  the  blacks  are  not  made  a  dump- 
ing ground  for  the  less  desirable  whites.  Justice 
the  negro  wants,  not  necessarily  social  mixing. 
And  it  may  be  wondered,  sometimes,  if  the  provi- 
dential meaning  of  this  seemingly  hard  forcing  of 
the  black  back  upon  himself  may  not  be,  that  the 
nation  is  not  to  be  allowed  to  lose  the  irreplace- 
able gifts  of  this  truly  gifted  people,  as  it  has  already 


296     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

too  often  wastefully  thrown  away  so  many  of  the 
peculiar  gifts  of  incoming  immigrants. 

Above  all,  the  negro  has  the  very  difficult  task  of 
not  allowing  himself  to  be  betrayed,  even  by  in- 
justice, into  bitterness,  resentment,  suspicion,  and 
hatred.  The  only  mortal  wound  a  man's  enemy  can 
give  him  is  to  provoke  him  into  an  unworthy  spirit, 
to  tempt  him  to  lower  himself  to  the  level  of  the  at- 
tack made  upon  him.  One  may  doubt  whether  he 
would  himself  be  equal  to  the  demand  made  upon 
the  negro;  but,  nevertheless,  as  long  as  moral 
principles  abide,  and  a  man's  empire  is  his  own 
spirit,  so  long  the  only  way  out  of  such  a  situation 
as  that  in  which  the  negro  finds  himself  —  the  only 
complete  triumph  —  is  to  hold  himself  above  it,  to 
keep  sweet,  to  grow  by  moral  victory,  to  gain  the 
conquest  of  that  meekness  that  inherits  even  the 
earth,  —  maintaining  oneself  at  one's  best  even  under 
provocation.  And  so  the  race's  greatest  leaders 
have  borne  themselves.  For,  in  another's  words, 
"no  one  long  wants  to  oppose  the  man  whom  oppo- 
sition never  embitters.  But  the  man  who  tries  to 
overcome  opposition  by  showing  that  he  resents  it, 
and  by  hurling  himself  against  it,  only  builds  it  up 
the  stronger.  Keeping  sweet  in  spite  of  opposi- 
tion is  never  a  sign  of  amiable  weakness ;   only  the 


RACE    ANTAGONISMS  297 

Strongest  can  do  it.  Therefore  such  keeping  sweet  is 
an  irresistible  attack  on  the  opposition,  and  will  con- 
vert it  to  friendliness  or  agreement,  if  anything  can." 
2.  And  in  this  difficult  problem  of  the  relation  of 
the  black  and  white  races,  the  white,  too,  must  keep 
his  self-respect.  Undoubtedly,  with  the  many  dif- 
ferences between  individuals  and  races,  the  feeling 
of  uncongeniality  must  often  be  present,  sometimes 
in  such  marked  degree  that  some  kinds  of  associ- 
ation, at  least,  are  better  not  attempted.  But 
even  then,  the  feeling  is  not  one  to  be  proud  of; 
and  one  needs  to  recognize  a  certain  limitation  and 
bUndness  in  himself  that  prevents  him  from  enter- 
ing with  S3mipathetic  understanding  into  the  life 
and  thought  of  the  other  man  or  race,  and  finding 
some  larger  basis  of  agreement.  While,  then, 
we  recognize  race  antipathy  as  a  fact,  with  a  meas- 
ure of  justification,  we  may  not  defend  it  as  a  final 
good,  but  we  are  rather  to  see  it,  in  the  light  of 
present-day  world  conditions  already  pointed  out, 
as  one  of  the  greatest  present  obstacles  to  the 
progress  of  the  human  race.  With  some  shame- 
facedness,  therefore,  although  race  antipathy  is 
closely  connected  with  a  vigorous  race  conscious- 
ness, we  may  recognize,  simply  as  a  natural  fact 
to  be  taken  account  of,  the  often  marked  general 


298     THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

uncongeniality  of  the  white  and  black  races,  show- 
ing itself  in  very  different  ways  in  different  people. 
It  is  not  wise  for  any  of  us  to  ignore  this  fact,  nor 
unnecessarily  to  rasp  this  feeling  of  uncongeniality 
in  others. 

But  no  feeling  of  uncongeniahty  can  justify 
essential  injustice,  and  the  white  cannot  keep  his 
own  self-respect,  however  brilliantly  he  may  argue, 
if  he  refuses  complete  justice  to  the  negro,  or  refuses 
obedience  to  the  finer  fundamental  moral  and 
Christian  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person. 
And  any  attempt  to  deny  that  the  negro  belongs  to 
the  human  race,  and  has  all  the  rights  of  a  person, 
simply  proclaims  the  denier  hopelessly  belated, 
and  exposes  him  to  the  just  scorn  of  all  men,  what- 
ever his  pretensions.  There  is  not  the  slightest 
room  for  argument  at  that  point.  And  that  there 
are  still  a  few  brutal  men  who  can  so  talk,  is  only  a 
sign  of  the  mortal  wound  that  slavery  of  the  black 
gave  to  the  white.  The  enslaver  cannot  easily 
escape  the  curse  of  slavery  in  its  bitter  blinding  re- 
action on  his  own  inner  spirit.  The  dark  inheritance 
does  not  belong  to  the  black  alone.  The  whole  na- 
tional life  still  suffers  and  must  long  suffer  from  it. 

To  preserve  his  own  self-respect,  therefore,  the 
white  man  must  be  scrupulously  just,  never  deny- 


RACE    ANTAGONISMS  299. 

ing  the  negro  his  fair  and  equal  chance,  —  his  chance 
for  all  the  development  of  which  he  is  capable.  Any- 
other  policy  is  suicidal  for  the  nation.  We  are  a 
professed  democracy.  Now  it  is  impossible  to 
look  at  the  question  of  democracy  in  the  large,  and 
not  see  that  any  attempt  to  hold  the  negro  down  is 
a  blow  to  the  nation's  life. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  reached  such  a  point 
in  history  that  there  is  now  absolute  necessity  of 
the  conquest  of  race  prejudice  for  the  sake  of  the 
largest  world-progress.  In  the  second  place,  we 
may  not  forget  that  without  such  fair  and  just 
treatment  of  the  negro,  we  cannot  ourselves  keep 
our  own  democracy.  Lincoln  said  long  ago  that 
the  nation  could  not  continue,  "half  free  and  half 
slave."  It  is  just  as  certain  to-day  that  a  true 
democracy  cannot  exist,  half  aristocrat  and  half 
menial.  In  the  third  place,  for  the  sake  not  only  of 
the  negro,  but  of  the  entire  national  life,  the  negro 
must  have  the  ablest  and  soundest  leaders  from  his 
own  people.  Let  one  measure  the  immense  loss 
it  would  have  been,  not  to  the  negroes  only,  but 
to  our  whole  national  life,  if  the  single  man,  Booker 
Washington,  had  been  confined  in  his  ambitions 
to  the  position  of  a  railway  porter,  as  many  desire 
to    confine    the    negro    race.     For    all    the    larger 


300     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

interests  of  the  nation  it  is  imperative  that  the 
fullest  opportunity  should  be  given  for  the  develop- 
ment of  negro  leadership.  And  in  the  fourth  place, 
if  as  a  nation  we  are  to  take  pride  in  our  cosmo- 
politanism, it  is  certain  that  we  cannot  take  any- 
different  relation  to  the  negro  than  to  other  races. 
We  have  no  right  to  that  pride,  if  we  are  not  able  to 
deal  justly  and  considerately  with  the  race  that 
stands  closest  of  all  to  us.  In  all  this,  one  is  plead- 
ing not  simply  for  the  negro,  in  one  sense  not  mainly 
for  the  negro  ;  but  for  the  possibility  in  the  national 
hfe  of  a  genuine  and  thoroughgoing  democracy. 
Wherever  force  or  brutality,  wherever  fraud  or 
deception  or  indirection  come  in,  wherever  repres- 
sion or  withholding  of  just  opportunity  in  any  form 
appears,  there  the  doer  of  injustice  is  doomed  to 
suffer  in  his  inner  spirit  as  truly  as  the  one  wronged. 
The  strong  suffer  with  the  weak,  and  the  whole 
nation  with  its  most  oppressed  class. 

If  only  in  answer  to  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, then,  the  white  man  will  not  forget  that 
opportunity  of  self-development  is  necessary  to 
preserve  the  negro's  self-respect  and  necessary  for 
any  upbuilding  hope ;  and  that  the  nation  cannot 
break  down  the  negro's  hope  and  self-respect  and 
not  sap,  at  the  same  time,  his  power  of  self-control. 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  3OI 

Certainly,  there  is  nothing,  in  all  this  dark  and  dif- 
ficult problem,  that  both  races  require  so  much  to 
learn,  as  strenuous  self-control.  And  there  is 
to-day,  in  this  whole  question,  no  folly  so  stupen- 
dous and  so  unforgivable  as  that  the  race  that 
counts  itself  superior  should  show  extreme  lack  of 
self-control,  exactly  at  this  point  of  the  relation  of 
the  races.  The  great  proof  of  sanity  and  of  evolu- 
tion above  the  animal  is  power  of  self-control. 
Outrage  provokes  outrage ;  violence  provokes 
violence,  and  cannot  set  its  own  limits.  And  we 
are  naturally  now  seeing  the  same  treatment 
apphed  by  tobacco  and  cotton  white-cappers  to 
whites  whose  acts  are  in  any  way  not  approved, 
as  was  formerly  reserved  for  blacks.  This,  too, 
is  a  part  of  slavery's  own  curse ;  but  it  ought  not 
much  longer  to  keep  us  blind  to  that  great  saying 
of  Kant's,  already  quoted,  "  If  law  ceases,  all  worth 
of  human  life  on  earth  ceases  too." 

Here  the  interests  of  the  two  races  are  bound  up 
indissolubly  together.  Neither  race  has  any  option. 
Just  as  at  Atlanta  in  the  riot,  so  always  and  every- 
where, the  leaders  of  the  two  races  must  consult  to- 
gether, and  work  together  in  mutual  understanding 
and  mutual  respect  for  the  uphfting  of  all.  The 
steps  that  have  to  be  taken  in  the  development  of 


302      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  social  consciousness  anywhere,  here  too  must 
hold.  Such  consultation  and  work  together  are  inev- 
itable, whether  we  like  it  or  not,  if  our  national  life 
is  to  be  preserved.  They  are  just  as  certainly 
desirable,  even  if  not  forced.  And  they  are  indis- 
pensable, if  either  race  is  to  come  to  its  best.  The 
interests  of  the  two  races  are  indissolubly  knit 
up  together.  They  must  share  in  each  other's 
good.  Both  have,  as  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  puts 
it,  an  "indivisible  inheritance."  "If  there  be 
freedom  of  the  press ;  if  there  be  a  press  fit  or  unfit 
to  be  free  ;  if  there  be  a  vital  and  spiritual  religion ; 
if  there  be  books,  artists,  poets;  if  there  be  an 
historic  and  responsive  language ;  if  there  be  stable 
banks,  equitable  markets,  courts  accessible  and  for 
the  most  part  just;  physicians,  hospitals,  and  — 
by  no  means  least  —  the  kindly  interest  of  the 
wisest  and  kindHest  of  a  more  highly  developed 
population,  —  these  are  the  negro's.  In  so  far  as 
they  are  ours,  they  are  his ;  in  so  far  as  they  are 
not  his,  they  tend,  in  subtle,  inexorable  fashions, 
not  to  be  our  own.  In  the  fundamental  sense  we 
can  no  more  make  a  bi-racial  division  of  our  civili- 
zation than  we  can  make  a  bi-racial  division  of 
the  sunshine,  the  rain,  the  returning  seasons.' 

1  The  Basis  of  Ascendancy,  p.  12. 


"  1 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  303 

II 

RESPECT   FOR   THE   LIBERTY   OF   OTHERS 

I .  And  in  this  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  races, 
we  must  respect  throughout  the  liberty  of  the  other 
man.  We  cannot  force  the  attitude  of  the  other 
anywhere,  with  gain,  even  if  it  were  possible.  The 
only  real  and  permanent  gain  is  in  winning  his  will 
to  the  right  attitude.  Northerner  and  Southerner 
alike  must  try,  therefore,  charitably,  thoughtfully, 
to  get  the  other's  point  of  view,  —  to  recognize  the 
sincere  efforts  on  either  side  to  help  in  this  difficult 
problem,  and  to  seek  all  possible  cooperation. 
Doubtless  each  has  much  to  learn  from  the  other. 
It  may  be  suspected  that,  abstractly,  the  Northerner 
is  more  nearly  right  in  his  theory  as  to  relation  to 
the  negro ;  the  Southerner,  more  nearly  right  in  his 
individual  concrete  friendliness.  It  has  been,  for 
example,  so  difficult  for  capital,  even  with  high  aims, 
to  get  the  exactly  right  cue  in  relation  to  labor, 
when  only  whites  —  and  often  those  of  high 
quality  —  were  involved,  that  it  would  not  be 
strange  that,  even  with  the  best  intentions,  those 
close  to  the  negro  problem  should  not  see  quite 
clearly  the  delicacy  of  the  principle  involved.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  actual,  patient,  long-continued 


304     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

friendliness  may  be  all  too  lacking  in  the  accurate 
theorist.  The  instinctive  feehng  of  the  Southern 
white  as  to  so-called  social  equality  may  be  con- 
nected with  earnest  desire  to  be  absolutely  just  and 
fair  to  the  negro.  And,  even  when  the  Northerner 
does  not  sympathize  with  the  feehng,  it  is  essential 
that  he  should  not  confuse  the  issues  in  his  judg- 
ment of  another.  Just  as  surely,  the  Northerner's 
instinctive  recognition  of  worth  in  the  black,  even 
if  socially  expressed,  intends  no  injustice  to  other 
whites.  On  both  sides  there  must  be  hberty,  and 
frank  recognition  of  the  other's  liberty. 

2.  And  just  as  certainly  must  all  the  whites 
respect  the  liberty  oj  the  blacks.  Nothing  but  a 
weak-willed  child,  without  character,  can  be  the 
product  of  a  steady  policy  of  repression  and 
domination,  that  never  calls  out  the  child's  own 
will  and  gives  him  no  chance  to  use  his  will.  In 
this  difficult  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  races, 
we  need  to  be  reminded  of  that  far-reaching  prin- 
ciple of  Patterson  Du  Bois,  that  the  true  father's 
attitude  is  never,  "I  will  conquer  that  child  what- 
ever it  costs  him,"  but  *'I  will  help  that  child  to 
conquer  himself,  whatever  it  costs  me."  And  the 
more  paternal  either  North  or  South  feels  called  to 
make  the  relation  to  the  negro,  the  less  may  it 


RACE   ANTAGONISMS  305 

forget  that  the  attitude  of  mere  domination  is 
not  only  impossible  physically,  it  is  even  more 
impossible  morally.  The  one  thing  that  the  na- 
tion cannot  afford  to  do  is  to  keep  the  negro  in 
leading  strings,  even  if  it  could.  For  its  own 
salvation,  the  nation  must  rather  aim,  at  any 
possible  expense,  to  bring  the  negro  forward  as 
rapidly  as  may  be  to  self-knowledge,  to  self- 
reverence,  to  self-control,  that  the  negro  race  may 
cease  to  be  a  menace  or  a  problem,  and  become  as 
a  whole  what  it  already  is  in  part,  a  constituent, 
helpful  element  of  the  national  life.  Let  us  not 
repeat  with  the  negro  the  bitter  mistake  which 
Jane  Addams  reminds  us  we  have  so  often  made 
with  the  immigrant,  —  not  only  failing  to  see  his 
worth,  to  take  the  real  gift  which  he  brings,  to 
enlist  his  love  and  loyalty  for  the  nation,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  even  stirring  his  hatred  and  resent- 
ment. 

Ill 

RESPECT  FOR  THE  INNER  PERSONALITY  OF  OTHERS 

Right  race  relations  involve,  also,  a  deep  sense 
of  the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of  the  in- 
dividual  person.     This   highest   attainment,    this 


3o6     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

finest  flower  of  civilization  and  of  individual 
development,  it  has  been  often  complained,  the 
negro  peculiarly  lacks.  And  north  and  south,  we 
have  tried  to  punish  this  lack  of  reverence  for  the 
person  in  the  negro  with  immediate,  lawless, 
furious  revenge.  Even  if  the  charge  against  the 
negro  were  fully  admitted,  has  the  method  proved 
effective  ?  Can  it  ever,  for  any  age,  or  any  child, 
or  any  man,  or  any  people,  possibly  be  effective? 
Rather  are  we  not  cultivating,  with  remorseless 
inevitableness,  great  harvests  of  the  very  spirit 
we  are  seeking  to  root  out?  In  our  supposed 
superiority  we  violate  the  personality  hardly  less 
ruthlessly  or  less  revoltingly  than  the  brutal 
criminal  we  would  punish.  We  sow  to  the  wind, 
and  reap  the  whirlwind,  —  reap  it  in  white  and 
black  alike,  brutalizing  more  and  more  the  whole 
national  life.  No  pictures  need  be  drawn;  the 
daily  paper  tells,  with  heart-sickening  reiteration, 
the  depths  of  barbarism  to  which  mobs  of  sup- 
posably  civilized  whites  north  and  south,  have 
sunk,  in  their  desire  for  vengeance.  But  just  so 
far  as  we  yield  to  this  spirit,  we  are  losing  the 
very  first  elements  of  an  ordered  government 
and  a  decent  civilization.  The  whole  theory  and 
method   of    lynch    law    are    devil-inspired.     They 


RACE    ANTAGONISMS  307 

threaten  everything  that  is  sacred  or  valuable  in 
the  Hfe  that  men  have  to  Uve  together. 

How  are  we  to  secure  from  the  negro  and  white 
alike  this  white  flower  of  the  moral  and  Christian 
spirit,  —  reverence  for  the  person  ?  There  is  only 
one  way  —  never,  in  the  universe  of  God,  who  in 
his  Christ  stands  ever  to  knock  at  the  door  of  the 
human  heart,  never  but  one  way  —  the  way  of 
contagion  of  character.  Reverence  alone  can  beget 
reverence.  A  child  is  not  likely  to  rise  to  the 
sense  of  the  beauty  of  dehcate  respect  for  the 
person,  whose  own  self-respect  is  utterly  broken 
down.  The  pupils  of  a  certain  teacher  were  so 
notably  well  behaved,  that  a  man  was  led  to 
inquire  of  one  of  her  little  pupils  what  she  did  to 
secure  such  a  result.  "Oh,"  the  boy  repUed, 
''I  don't  know;  she  doesn't  do  anything;  but 
she  just  walks  around,  and  we  feel  as  poHte  as 
anything."  We  have  small  hope  of  creating  the 
delicate  sense  of  reverence  for  the  person  in  the 
less  favored  race,  so  long  as  the  more  favored 
race  stamps  the  other  spirit  of  contempt,  by  awful 
barbaric  examples,  upon  it.  There  is  only  one 
way  —  the  way  of  contagion  by  personal  example. 
"But  if  this  way  be  abandoned,"  as  Ecce  Homo 
says,   "the   effect  will   appear  in   a   certain  slow 


30S     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

deterioration  of  manners,  which  it  would  be  hard 
to  describe  had  it  not  been  described  already  in 
well  known  words.  'Sophistry  and  calculation' 
will  take  the  place  of  'chivalry.'  There  will  be 
no  more  'generous  loyalty,'  no  more  'proud  sub- 
mission,' no  more  'dignified  obedience.'  A  stain 
will  no  more  be  felt  like  a  wound,  and  our  hardened 
and  coarsened  manners  will  lose  the  'sensibility 
of  principle  and  the  chastity  of  honor.'" 

The  present  situation  as  to  race  prejudice  and 
race  antipathy  of  all  kinds  is  a  divine  challenge 
to  us  all  of  every  race,  and  a  solemn  call  to  the 
rededication  of  ourselves  to  the  finer  fruits  of  the 
moral  and  Christian  spirit  —  to  the  spirit  of 
reverence  for  the  person.  Like  Christ,  we  are  to 
stand  and  knock  at  the  door  of  the  humblest  per- 
sonality. Like  Christ,  we  stoop  in  shame  wherever 
the  inner  sanctities  of  any  soul  are  violated. 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Meaning  of  the  Challenge  in  Our  Own 
National  Life  III :  A  Truer  Democracy 

We  have  been  trying  to  see  what  the  challenge 
of  the  modern  world  means  for  our  own  nation : 
first,  in  the  demand  for  an  enlargement  and  rein- 
vigoration  of  the  moral  hfe  of  the  people  in  a  new 
Puritanism ;  and,  second,  in  the  problem  of  race 
antagonisms,  which  is  so  directly  forced  upon  us, 
and  has  assumed  such  vast  proportions.  But  we 
cannot  stop  here.  We  need  still  more  definitely 
to  see  the  bearing  of  these  modern  conditions  upon 
democracy ;  for  it  is  as  a  democracy,  that  America 
has  its  life  to  live,  and  its  part  to  play  in  the  world. 
It  is  demanded  of  us  as  a  nation  that  we  make 
certain  that  we  are  so  facing  the  changed  condi- 
tions of  the  modern  world,  as  to  insure  at  each 
step  a  still  truer  democracy.  Not  otherwise, 
assuredly,  can  we  be  loyal  to  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple of  our  civilization,  —  reverence  for  personality. 

The  prodigious  increases  in  knowledge,  in  power, 
309 


3IO     THE   MORAL    AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

and  in  wealth  that  have  characterized  our  time, 
ought  naturally  to  carry  with  them  the  possibili- 
ties of  a  far  more  genuine  democracy.  If  they 
do  not  so  prove,  then,  at  some  point,  the  nation 
has  been  unfaithful  to  its  trust,  or  blind  to  its 
opportunity.  We  need  clearly  to  see  where  and 
why  it  has  failed,  and  to  set  before  ourselves  as  a 
people  a  strong  and  consistent  national  poUcy  in 
our  dealing  with  modern  conditions  that  shall  be 
unmistakably  democratic  in  its  entire  spirit  and 
outcome.  Just  because  the  changes  of  the  modern 
time  have  been  so  largely  economic,  and  the  effect 
of  these  economic  changes  so  far-reaching,  we 
must  expect  to  find  some  of  the  gravest  problems 
of  democracy  in  this  sphere  of  the  economic. 
But,  serious  as  is  the  economic  challenge,  it  is  not 
here  alone  that  the  modern  world  flings  down  the 
gauntlet  to  a  democratic  people.  In  many  lines 
the  possibilities  of  democratic  success  or  failure  are 
enormous. 

In  the  first  place,  the  general  trend  among  the 
nations,  the  world  over,  we  have  found  to  be  such 
as  naturally  to  spur  a  democratic  nation  to  still 
more  earnest  endeavor.  A  democratic  tendency, 
within  the  nations  generally,  seemed  clearly  dis- 
cernible, and    steps  in  the  contrary  direction  are 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  31I 

practically  impossible.  Even  in  dependencies, 
where  present  conditions  appear  hopeless,  the 
conviction  that  no  people  has  a  right  simply  to 
exploit  another  people  is  deep  and  growing,  and  is 
increasingly  supported  by  the  conscience  of  the 
world.  Side  by  side  with  a  sense  of  world-poUtics 
and  imperialistic  policies,  there  has  developed, 
too,  the  spirit  of  a  sound  nationalism  naturally 
based.  Coupled  with  the  feeling  concerning  de- 
pendencies, this  must  increasingly  put  a  whole- 
some check  upon  unscrupulous  imperialistic  aggres- 
sions, and  direct  the  world  ambitions  of  the  nations 
into  lines  of  cooperative  international  endeavor. 
For  no  nation  can  ultimately  afford  to  array  against 
herself  the  general  moral  judgment  of  the  world. 
The  rapid  progress  of  international  arbitration, 
also,  points,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  same  direction. 
Socialism  and  nihilism,  too,  have  compelled  the 
nations  to  open  their  eyes  to  conditions  essentially 
undemocratic,  and  to  demand  at  least  some  change. 
And  the  swift  and  enormous  growth  of  sentiment, 
that  but  a  few  years  ago  would  have  been  called 
socialistic,  is  unmistakable. 

Surely  the  modern  world  conditions  permit  to 
a  democracy  no  turning  backward ;  but  are  rather 
a   trumpet   call   to   a   consistent,   significant,   and 


312     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

notable  advance  toward  a  still  truer  democracy,  — 
a  democracy  that  shall  be  absolutely  and  mani- 
festly loyal  to  its  great  basic  Christian  conviction 
of  the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of  every 
individual  person,  and  that  will  leave,  therefore, 
none  anywhere  to  be  mere  conveniences  for  other 
men.  Measured  by  such  a  standard,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  world  has  never  yet  seen  a 
genuinely  Christian  democracy.  But  America  may 
not  set  before  herself  any  lesser  goal ;  for  this  is 
democracy's  final  meaning.  A  true  democracy 
must  be  permeated  through  and  through  with  the 
spirit  of  reverence  for  every  personality ;  and  this 
requires  both  a  clear-sighted  and  tireless,  unselfish 
leadership,  and  some  response  to  an  unselfish  and 
reverent  standard  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  all 
citizens.  For,  as  Croly  says,  "for  better  or  worse, 
democracy  cannot  be  disentangled  from  an  aspira- 
tion toward  human  perfectibility,  and  hence  from 
the  adoption  of  measures  looking  in  the  direction 
of  realizing  such  an  aspiration."  ^ 

This  means  that  a  democracy  cannot  make  en- 
during progress  without  ethical  progress.  Its 
foundations  must  be  laid  in  a  thoughtful  justice 
for  all,  and  in  unceasing  pains  to  bring  all  to  the 

^  The  Promise  of  American  Life,  p.  454. 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  313 

height  of  their  several  capacities.  Only  so  can 
either  nation  or  individual  attain  the  best.  "The 
future  of  the  American  people,"  it  has  been  well 
said,  ''depends  upon  the  future  of  the  American 
conscience." 

It  is  peculiarly  perilous,  moreover,  for  a  democ- 
racy to  fail  in  genuine  exemplification  of  the 
democratic  spirit ;  not  only  because  the  ultimate 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  a  govern- 
ment that  fails  them  is  certain  finally  to  be  brought 
to  book ;  but,  because  the  undemocratic  action  or 
poHcy  involves  self-stultification  at  every  step  and 
the  consequent  permeation  of  the  national  life 
with  all  the  evils  of  a  disintegrating  sham.  As  the 
world's  largest  and  most  conspicuous  democracy, 
too,  America  is  particularly  bound  to  lead  in  the 
exemplification  of  the  democratic  spirit,  and  in 
extending  the  sway  of  democratic  principles.  She 
should  greatly  assist,  and  not  hinder,  the  existing 
democratic  trend  in  the  world.  To  this  end,  also, 
America  should  correct  as  speedily  as  possible  all 
undemocratic  inconsistencies,  and  point  the  way 
to  a  far  nobler  national  life.  Not  only  for  its  own 
sake,  then,  but  also  for  the  sake  of  the  world 
civilization,  America  needs  steadily  to  aim  at  a 
truer  democracy.     Just  how,  and  at  what  points? 


314     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

Can  we  make  out  with  some  precision  exactly 
what  the  challenge  of  modern  world  conditions 
requires  from  American  democracy? 

All  modern  progress,  we  have  clearly  seen,  goes 
back  to  increase  in  power,  that  has  come  through 
laying  under  tribute,  more  and  more,  the  inex- 
haustible forces  of  nature,  by  modern  science,  as 
expressed  in  the  labors  of  discoverers  and  inven- 
tors. This  possible  progressive  conquest  of  the 
forces  of  nature  had  its  root,  we  saw,  in  the  new 
inner  world  of  thought,  in  absolute  freedom  of 
investigation,  guaranteed  by  the  religious  principle 
of  freedom  of  conscience.  The  new  world  —  outer 
and  inner  —  with  which  we  of  this  age  have  to  do, 
is,  from  this  point  of  view,  a  singularly  unified 
world.  Wealth  grows  out  of  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  natural  power,  and  issues  in  various 
forms  of  economic  and  political  power.  The  in- 
struments of  economic  progress  are  the  discoverers, 
inventors,  and  practical  appliers  of  the  forces  of 
nature.  For  the  social,  moral,  and  religious 
progress  of  the  race,  all  this  power  —  natural, 
economic,  and  political  —  needs  control  and  direc- 
tion, according  to  great  principles  and  ideals. 
The  test  of  a  civilization  or  nation,  from  this 
point  of  view,  is  this :  Is  all  its  power  under  ethical 


A    TRUER   DEMOCRACY  315 

control?  is  all  its  power  exercised,  in  full  loyalty 
to  the  principle  of  reverence  for  personality?  or 
are  all  the  features  of  its  life  designed  to  bring 
each  individual  to  his  fullest  possibilities,  and  so 
to  his  completest  contribution  to  the  life  of  the 
nation  and  of  the  world  ?  This  does  not  mean 
putting  all  on  a  dead  level ;  it  does  not  mean 
leveling  down  to  an  average,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
ancient  communism ;  it  does  not  mean  the  false 
insistence  that  all  have  equal  capacity  for  service, 
and  are,  therefore,  to  be  equally  rewarded.  It 
does  mean  the  possibility  of  a  man's  life  for  every 
man  —  the  possibility  of  each  coming  to  his  own 
best,  and  the  direct  encouragement  of  that  best 
by  the  community,  both  for  the  individual's  sake, 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  common  good ;  and  it 
involves  exceptional  reward  for  exceptional  service ; 
though  this  reward  may  be  chiefly  in  larger  oppor- 
tunity for  unselfish  leadership,  —  in  increasing 
chance  to  work  out  enlarging  community  ideals. 
The  future  quite  certainly  holds  the  far  more  fre- 
quent vision  of  consummate  ability  turned  from 
the  pursuit  of  private  fortune  to  public  service. 

The  external  features  of  our  time,  as  earlier  re- 
viewed, can  hardly  fail  to  suggest  to  the  thought- 
ful man,   at  every  point,   a  national  as  well  as 


3l6     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

individual  challenge.  In  the  first  place,  the  pro- 
gressive conquest  of  nature's  forces,  and  the  result- 
ing stupendous  development  of  natural  resources, 
have  created  a  new  world  for  nations  as  well  as  for 
individuals. 


A  DEMOCRATIC  POLICY  IN  THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURAL 
FORCES 

The  conquest  of  natural  forces,  to  begin  with, 
has  come  so  rapidly,  yet  so  irregularly,  and  at 
such  scattered  points,  that  the  community,  as 
represented  in  states  and  nations,  has  nowhere 
developed  a  consistent  policy  concerning  them. 
But  it  must  become  more  and  more  evident  that 
in  this  progressive  conquest  over  the  forces  of 
nature  (that  must  be  held,  in  justice,  to  belong  to 
humanity  as  a  whole),  wherever  any  new  power  or 
application  of  power  is  laid  under  tribute,  there 
the  whole  community  have  certain  great  inalien- 
able rights  to  conserve ;  however  jealously  it  may 
seek  at  the  same  time  to  protect  the  rights  to 
reward  for  exceptional  service,  on  the  part  of  the 
discoverer,  the  inventor,  or  the  practical  applier. 

The  community  is  immensely  concerned  in  the 
way  in  which  new  explosives,  new  poisons,  new 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  317 

narcotics,  for  example,  are  to  be  used ;  and  it 
cannot,  in  justice  to  the  simplest  demands  of  an 
ordered  government,  leave  the  manner  and  extent 
of  their  use  to  chance,  to  selfish  interest,  or  to  the 
forces  of  evil.  So,  too,  it  makes  a  great  difference 
to  the  community  how  such  new  applications  of 
force  as  the  automobile,  the  aeroplane,  and  the 
wireless  telegraphy  are  to  be  employed.  And  the 
same  thing  holds  for  all  new  machinery,  especially 
where  significant  economic  changes  are  certain  to 
follow.  If,  independently  of  ample  reward  for  the 
inventor,  important  mechanical  devices  are  allowed 
immediately  to  be  monopolized,  the  community  is 
defrauded,  often  of  any  advantage  from  the  in- 
vention, and  usually  of  a  very  large  part  of  the 
advantage  accruing.  The  reward  here  is  chiefly 
for  manipulation  of  conditions,  and  is  immensely 
disproportionate  to  service  rendered.  It  may  often 
happen,  also,  that  changes  in  machinery  involve, 
in  the  readjustment,  grave  economic  and  social 
effects  for  considerable  numbers  in  the  nation  at 
large.  Even  then  the  improved  machinery  cannot 
be  fought;  but  it  plainly  matters  greatly  to  the 
nation  that  many  of  its  citizens  should  be  thus 
financially  disabled.  The  welfare  of  the  nation  is 
involved  both  in  the  gain  and  in  the  loss.     It  is 


3l8      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

bound  to  have,  as  to  both  loss  and  gain,  a  definite, 
intelligent,  and  consistently  democratic  policy, 
based  upon  this  large  community  interest.  The 
community  has  a  right  to  share  in  the  gain  from 
invention,  and  to  require  that  the  added  profit 
from  invention  do  something  to  make  good  any 
evil  economic  and  social  consequences  that  may 
result.  Many  more  are  concerned  than  simply 
inventors,  manufacturers,  and  owners  or  operators, 
or  even  employees. 

The  right  of  the  community  to  strict  control 
of  all  power,  at  this  initial  point  of  its  derivation 
from  nature,  must  be  clearly  recognized;  and  it 
demands  a  consistent  national  policy  that  can 
be  applied,  with  thoughtful  discrimination,  with- 
out nagging  and  unnecessarily  hampering  con- 
ditions, and  with  generous  recognition  of  the 
service  of  the  thinkers  and  executors  involved, 
and  yet  unhesitatingly  and  thoroughly.  Indeed, 
it  is  only  in  this  way  that  the  full  value  of  the 
new  force  or  device  can  be  brought  out,  and  its 
largest  and  highest  service  rendered. 


A    TRUER   DEMOCRACY  319 


II 

A   DEMOCRATIC    POLICY   IN    THE    USE    OF    NATURAL 
RESOURCES 

In  a  similar  way,  a  consistent  national  policy, 
whether  expressed  through  the  state  governments 
or  through  the  national  government,  should  be 
developed  as  to  the  use  of  all  natural  resources. 
Very  obviously,  there  must  be  a  limit  to  the  mo- 
nopolizing, by  private  individuals  or  corporations, 
of  natural  resources.  Very  few  would  to-day  deny 
a  community's  right  to  secure,  for  example,  an 
uncontaminated  water  supply.  Can  it  be  finally 
doubted  that  the  community  has  a  similar  right 
to  natural  sources  of  water  for  power  and  for  irri- 
gation, to  natural  sources  of  light,  of  heat,  and  of 
indispensable  minerals?  The  individual's  right  of 
discovery,  or  the  exploiter's  or  combination's  right 
of  reward  for  service  rendered,  are  —  no  one  of 
them  —  exclusive  rights.  They  are  very  seriously 
limited  by  the  much  larger  right  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  reward  in  many  of  these  cases  has 
been  extravagant  beyond  estimate,  —  an  almost 
unconditioned  permission  to  place  a  perpetual  tax 
upon   the  whole  community,   for  what  ought  to 


320     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

have  been  considered  in  large  measure  the  property 
of  the  community  from  the  start. 

It  is  peculiarly  incumbent  on  America,  just 
because  it  is  bound  to  stand  for  democratic  ideals, 
and  because  its  economic  development  has  been 
the  most  swift  and  intense  of  all,  to  work  out  a 
thoroughgoing  and  consistent  national  policy  for 
dealing  with  all  newly  discovered  natural  forces, 
and  with  all  the  great  natural  resources,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  insure  both  the  encouragement  of  indi- 
vidual initiative  and  of  the  development  of  all 
latent  capacity,  and  the  fair  sharing  by  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  in  all  gains  made.  The  national 
conservation  of  natural  resources  is,  so  far,  but  a 
very  short  and  timid  step  in  the  direction  in  which 
the  nation  must  travel,  if  a  true  democracy  is  to 
be  attained.  Earlier  mistakes  must  be  corrected, 
and  earlier  injustices,  so  far  as  possible,  made 
good,  and  the  interest  of  the  whole  people  be 
clearly  constituted,  all  along  the  line,  the  domi- 
nant interest.  This  need  not  necessarily  mean 
public  ownership  of  the  great  natural  resources. 
But  it  will  ultimately  mean  just  that,  if  strict  and 
just  control  cannot  be  secured,  and  the  community 
interest  conserved,  in  any  other  way.  For  steady 
ignoring  of  the  interests  of  the  people  as  a  whole, 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  321 

at  even  so  difficult  a  point  as  this,  no  democracy 
can  permanently  endure.  One  of  the  most  threaten- 
ing elements  in  the  situation  to-day,  both  in  Eng- 
land —  where  one  hundred  thousand  railway  work- 
men have  been  earning  less  than  five  dollars  a  week 
—  and  America  is  the  almost  absolute  blindness 
to  any  community  interest,  on  the  part  of  those 
who  have  most  profited  by  the  selfish  exploitation 
of  natural  resources.  Their  utterances  are  too 
often  worthy  only  of  an  unhampered  and  un- 
scrupulous oligarchy. 

Ill 

A  DEMOCRATIC  POLICY  IN  THE  CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC 
UTILITIES 

The  community's  dominant  right,  also,  to  the 
strict  control  of  all  public  utilities,  and  a  steady 
sharing  directly  or  indirectly  in  all  profits  from 
them,  cannot  much  longer  be  questioned.  Here, 
just  as  in  the  case  of  its  immense  natural  resources, 
the  nation  and  its  constituent  parts  have  pro- 
ceeded with  reckless  waste.  In  a  short-sighted 
haste  to  develop  their  resources  and  to  get  easy 
and  quick  results  in  public  service,  the  people 
flung   away   untold   sources   of    wealth,    and   put 


322      THE   MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CIL\LLENGE 

themselves,  at  most  vital  points,  in  the  power  of 
monopolistic  combinations.  They  were  too  en- 
grossed in  their  individual  enterprises  to  study 
conditions,  to  prevent  the  grossest  political  job- 
bery, or  to  develop  true  leaders  of  the  people. 
Material  success  so  held  the  attention  of  all,  as 
individuals,  that  it  was  punished  by  great  ma- 
terial loss  on  the  part  of  the  community,  as  a 
whole.  The  history  of  water,  gas,  and  transpor- 
tation companies  in  our  great  cities  is  almost 
uniformly  a  record  of  shame,  both  to  the  com- 
munity and  to  the  company.  Much  the  same 
thing  must  be  said  as  to  the  manipulation  of  rail- 
way interests  in  the  country  at  large.  That  a 
true  democracy  has  been  here  expressing  itself, 
no  one  could  dream.  Good  service  in  any  of  these 
lines  should  be  reasonably,  even  generously, 
rewarded,  and  daring  individual  enterprise,  out- 
running public  willingness  to  act,  fully  recognized ; 
but  the  wealth  accruing  from  public  utilities  is 
still  very  largely  a  direct  public  product;  and  the 
public  cannot  be  justly  shut  out  from  control  of 
policy  and  profits.  Here,  too,  a  general  national 
policy  —  the  result  of  careful  study  and  just  con- 
sideration of  all  interests  —  should  be  adopted,  in 
place  of  all  kinds  of  haphazard  experiments,  that 


A    TRUER   DEMOCRACY  323 

issue  in  justice  neither  to  the  investor  nor  to  the 
public.  And  some  gratifying  progress  has  been 
made  toward  the  outlines,  at  least,  of  such  a  policy, 
that  recognizes  at  every  point  the  community 
interest. 

IV 

A    DEMOCRATIC     POLICY     CONCERNING    CONCENTRA- 
TION  OF    WEALTH   AND   POWER 

The  enormous  increase  in  wealth  that  has  come 
in  this  generation,  and  the  unprecedented  extent 
to  which  this  wealth  and  the  power  of  control  in- 
volved in  gigantic  combinations  of  capital  have 
been  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  compara- 
tively small  group  of  men,  bring  to  America,  in 
peculiar  degree,  problems  of  the  gravest  import. 
If  there  had  been  a  consistent  and  truly  democratic 
national  policy  in  the  handling  of  the  problems 
already  considered,  this  problem  could  have  as- 
sumed no  such  threatening  proportions.  But  it 
is  not  strange  that,  in  the  marvelously  rapid  eco- 
nomic development  of  the  country,  the  present 
outcome  should  not  have  been  anticipated  and 
reckoned  with.  Given  the  conditions,  the  result 
was  practically  inevitable.  And  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily imply  any  direct  scheming,  on  the  part  of 


324      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

any  men  or  group  of  men,  for  such  unexampled 
power  over  the  life  of  the  nation  as  now  exists. 
The  vast  waste  of  universal  competition  in  indus- 
trial and  commercial  enterprises  was  certain  soon 
to  force  itself  upon  men's  minds,  as  also  the  great 
possibilities  of  minute  savings  on  a  large  scale ; 
and  gigantic  combinations  of  capital  inevitably 
result.  They  cannot  be  fought  simply  as  evil. 
They  contain  the  possibility  of  larger  and  better 
community  service.  Moreover,  the  blindness  of 
the  nation  in  its  recklessly  wasteful  policy  con- 
cerning power  from  nature,  natural  resources,  and 
public  utilities,  directly  and  steadily  promoted 
such  immense  aggregations  of  wealth.  Tariff 
legislation,  also,  has  been  persistently  used,  some- 
times in  an  honestly  mistaken  policy,  sometimes 
with  deliberate  intention,  to  levy  a  tax  upon  all 
the  people  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  a  small 
class,  in  the  building  up  of  enormous  fortunes. 
And  this  has  been  accompanied  by  the  influence  of 
selfish  sectional  interests,  and  by  a  baleful  exercise 
of  political  power  on  the  part  of  the  financial 
interests,  for  the  defeat  of  legislation  looking  to 
the  good  of  the  whole  people.  In  the  rapid  growth 
of  our  cities,  too,  prodigious  increments  in  land 
values  have  come  in,  still  further  to  increase  these 


A    TRUER    DEMOCRACY  325 

aggregations  of  wealth,  and  to  widen  the  dangerous 
gap  between  the  few  and  the  many. 

The  final  outcome  is  not  only  private  incomes 
that  rival  in  extent  national  revenues,  but  such 
combinations  of  capital  and  of  lines  of  industry, 
as  leave  the  nation  almost  literally  at  the  mercy 
of  the  will  of  a  few  men.  Small  groups  of  men 
have  practically  the  power  to  levy  a  tax  on  the 
whole  people,  and  to  determine  the  amount  of 
that  tax,  in  the  case  of  many  of  the  virtual  neces- 
sities of  life.  An  absolutely  unprecedented  con- 
centration of  power  over  the  life  of  the  nation  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  private  individuals  has  taken 
place.  Monopolistic  control  is  more  and  more 
asserting  itself,  and  an  aristocracy  of  wealth  aris- 
ing. Now  it  need  not  be  contended  that  this 
power  has  been  shamelessly  abused,  that  con- 
spicuous ability  has  not  been  shown,  and  marked 
economic  efficiency  not  displayed,  or  that  large  pub- 
lic service  has  not  been  rendered.  Nor  is  it  to  be 
denied  that,  by  many,  there  have  been  stupendous 
gifts  intended  for  the  public  good,  and  honest 
concern  for  the  interests  of  their  employees.  But 
all  these  things  and  many  others  of  like  import 
scarcely  affect  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  for 
a  democracy.     If  the  possessors  of  this  enormous 


326     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

wealth  and  power  had  been,  all  of  them,  heroes 
and  saints,  a  democracy  must  still  ask.  Do  such 
power  and  privileges,  under  any  conditions,  belong 
in  private  hands?  There  is  one  sole  reason  for 
special  privilege  in  a  democracy  —  a  correspond- 
ingly great  special  service  to  the  community; 
and  special  privileges  even  so  earned  must  be 
absolutely  subject  to  public  control ;  —  they  must 
not  usurp  at  any  point  public  functions. 

With  the  greatest  desire  to  do  justice  to  the 
holders  of  these  gigantic  American  fortunes,  it 
can  hardly  be  afhrmed  that  these  fortunes  were 
simply  adequate  reward  for  service  rendered. 
Where  they  may  be  considered  as  under  the  given 
conditions  legitimate,  they  are  very  largely  the 
product  of  the  exploitation  of  the  forces  of  nature, 
of  natural  resources,  or  of  pubHc  utiHties;  or  the 
product  of  tariff  legislation,  of  unearned  land  incre- 
ments, or  of  gigantic  monopolies.  Now  at  every 
one  of  these  points,  the  community  had  not  only 
a  paramount  interest,  but,  as  the  chief  owners  or 
producers  of  the  wealth,  a  paramount  right. 
This  was  not  fully  realized  beforehand  by  any. 
There  were  plain  historical  reasons  —  that  need 
not  be  here  rehearsed  —  why  it  would  have  seemed, 
at  an  earlier  period  in  American  Hfe,  an  abridg- 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  327 

ment  of  liberty,  and  so  essentially  undemocratic, 
for  the  community  to  have  asserted  its  right  at 
most  of  these  points. 

Nevertheless,  this  should  not  now  blind  us  to 
the  fact  that  the  outcome  is  essentially  and  in- 
herently undemocratic,  and  fraught  with  the 
gravest  danger  to  our  national  life.  There  must 
be  no  chance  for  doubt,  in  the  minds  of  any,  that 
the  interests  and  power  of  the  nation,  —  of  the 
people  as  a  whole,  are  absolutely  dominant;  that 
special  privileges  of  any  kind  have  always  at  their 
root  proportionate  service,  and  continue  only  so 
long  as  that  service  continues ;  that,  everywhere, 
persons  are  more  than  things,  the  rights  of  per- 
sons above  the  rights  of  property,  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  reverence  for  personality  the  determining 
consideration  in  all  policies  adopted.  Can  it  be 
truly  affirmed  that  these  principles  have  controlled 
in  the  building  up  of  these  barbarically  stupendous 
fortunes  ?  or  can  it  be  claimed  that  the  nation 
has  here  any  consistent  policy,  still  less  a  con- 
sistently democratic  policy?  Would  not,  indeed, 
the  single  principle  of  reward  according  to  service, 
have  essentially  changed  conditions  at  multiplied 
points?  And  yet,  is  it  not  unmistakably  clear 
that  the  health  of  the  nation,  even  the  possible 


328     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

future  of  any  true  democracy,  depends  upon  the 
adoption  and  application  of  a  consistent  democratic 
national  policy  in  the  treatment  of  wealth  and  its 
present  stupendous  power  ? 

This  is  not  the  concern  only  of  the  depressed 
and  impoverished  classes ;  it  concerns  every  man, 
rich  or  poor,  who  believes  in  democracy  and  in 
its  underlying  Christian  principles,  and  who  wishes 
to  see  America  increasingly  embodying  such  a 
democracy.  Invective  of  the  rich  is  little  to  the 
point,  and  the  stirring  of  class  hatred  is  only  a 
hindrance  to  a  rational  and  just  procedure.  The 
present  conditions,  we  have  amply  seen,  are  good 
for  neither  rich  nor  poor.  Unearned  special 
privileges  cannot  prove  ultimately  either  an  honor 
or  a  blessing.  They  tend  to  disintegrate  the  life, 
both  of  the  individual  who  has  them  and  of  the 
nation  that  allows  them.  And  the  perpetual 
sense  of  an  essentially  unjust  distribution  of  wealth 
inevitably  breeds  bitter  discontent,  and  is  made 
to  justify  a  growing  hatred  of  the  rich,  and  all 
kinds  of  attacks  upon  them.  The  language  of  the 
times  concerning  labor  and  capital  is,  one  fears  it 
must  be  said,  increasingly  that  of  warfare.  And 
the  ethical  standards  on  both  sides  are  far  too 
largely  simply  those  of  war  for  the  mastery.     In- 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  329 

creasing  combination  on  one  side  has  been  met 
by  increasing  combination  on  the  other,  and 
neither  side  has  given  much  consideration  to  the 
common  good.  Now,  if  this  nation  is  to  be  a 
democracy  at  all,  the  pubhc  cannot  permanently 
consent  to  live  between  two  warring  camps.  The 
interest  of  the  whole  people  is  greater  than  that 
of  either  capital  or  labor  and  must  rule ;  but  it 
does  not  rule,  wherever  injustice  still  remains. 
But  it  peculiarly  concerns  the  privileged  classes  to 
remember  that,  in  a  democracy,  arrogance  is  the 
forerunner  of  destruction,  and  nothing  so  surely 
makes  for  their  downfall  as  the  sense  of  essential 
injustice. 

All  ahke,  therefore,  —  the  general  community, 
the  laborer,  the  capitalist,  —  are  concerned  that  the 
many  ugly  facts  in  the  Hfe  of  the  American  nation, 
that  show  plainly  enough  that  we  have  not  yet 
attained  a  true  democracy,  should  be  changed. 
It  is  these  rank  inconsistencies  in  the  life  of  a  pro- 
fessedly democratic  people,  that  so  fire  the  hearts 
of  the  laboring  classes,  and  make  them  feel  that, 
in  their  own  fight,  they  are  fighting  the  battle  of 
humanity.  It  is  these  that  arouse  the  growing 
indignation  of  the  great  body  of  the  people,  not 
primarily  connected  with  either  the  capitaHstic  or 


330     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

the  laboring  classes.  It  is  these  that,  when  ignored 
or  unremedied,  constitute  capital's  own  greatest 
enemy.  From  every  point  of  view,  the  whole 
nation  is  concerned  that  the  injustices  of  the  present 
situation  be  set  right.  They  are  not  the  work  of 
one  class  alone.  The  whole  people  have  been 
largely  at  fault;  and  it  is  for  the  whole  people  to 
repent,  and  to  turn  from  shortsightedness,  and 
from  individual  and  class  selfishness,  to  a  deep- 
going  justice,  that  forgets  not  "one  of  these 
least." 

It  is,  therefore,  wholesome  and  necessary  for  us 
all  that  we  should  have  clearly  in  mind  those 
various  ugly  facts,  that  illustrate  so  fully  how  far 
short  we  still  come,  on  the  economic  side,  of  a  genu- 
ine democracy.  These  facts,  ugly  as  they  are,  are 
not  to  be  reviewed  in  a  spirit  of  rancor,  but  with 
national  shamefacedness  and  the  determination  to 
press  steadily  forward  to  the  correction  of  such 
abuses,  and  of  such  gross  inconsistencies  in  the  life 
of  a  democratic  people.  Slavery  itself  was  hardly 
more  inconsistent  with  democracy  than  is  no  small 
part  of  our  economic  situation. 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  33 1 


A    DEMOCRATIC    POLICY     CONCERNING    SOCIAL    MAL- 
ADJUSTMENTS 

I.  At  the  bottom  of  all,  perhaps,  lies  a  body  of 
legal,  legislative,  and  judicial  tradition,  that  has 
arisen  naturally  enough  out  of  certain  historical 
conditions,  and  that  has  honestly  misled  almost 
all  concerned.  But,  however  it  has  come  about, 
it  must  probably  be  recognized  that  legal  practice, 
common  legislation,  and  court  decisions  have,  as  a 
whole,  been  far  more  concerned  for  the  rights  of 
property  than  for  the  rights  of  persons ;  and  have 
tended  pretty  steadily  to  favor,  almost  uncon- 
sciously, the  property-owning  and  capitalistic 
classes,  as  over  against  the  laboring  classes.  They 
have  felt  themselves  bound  by  precedents  that 
belong  to  a  far  earlier  and  far  different  time ;  and 
a  procedure  has  gradually  arisen  that  has  made 
much  of  legal  technicalities,  which,  in  their  turn, 
have  led  to  repeated  defeats  of  justice,  and  to 
insufferable  delays.  These  delays  inevitably  favor 
the  rich  rather  than  the  poor.  For,  especially  for 
the  poor,  justice  long  delayed  is  essential  injustice. 
The  injustice  of  this  general  situation  has  been 
almost    certainly,     though    again    unconsciously, 


332      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

augmented  by  the  extent  to  which  legislation  has 
been  in  the  hands  of  the  legal  profession,  that  sets 
such  store  by  precedent.  There  has  been  some 
gain  in  the  enlightenment  of  intelligence  and  con- 
science at  this  point.  But  probably  very  few  recog- 
nize the  extent  to  which  the  vastly  changed  condi- 
tions of  our  time  demand  changes  in  legal  enact- 
ment, procedure,  and  decision.  We  are  living  in 
an  age  separated,  in  many  of  its  features,  by  an 
immeasurable  gulf  from  any  preceding  age.  It  is  a 
time  to  make  precedents,  not  simply  to  follow  them. 
Our  legal  precedents,  too,  are  in  no  small  degree 
distinctly  aristocratic,  not  democratic ;  and  a  true 
democracy  cannot  be  expressed  or  interpreted  in 
their  terms. 

Now,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  work  a  deeper  injury 
to  the  life  of  a  nation  than  is  wrought  by  a  growing 
conviction,  on  the  part  of  the  great  masses  of  the 
people,  that  real  and  prompt  justice  cannot  be 
obtained  under  its  laws  and  legal  and  judicial 
procedure.  For  this  strikes  at  the  foundation  of 
all  peace  and  order  and  growth  and  good  will,  and 
directly  promotes,  instead,  a  persistent  lawlessness. 
It  deeply  concerns  the  whole  people,  therefore, 
that  they  should  not  be  blinded  at  this  most  vital 
point  by  custom,  convention,  or  precedent;    but 


A    TRUER   DEMOCRACY  333 

should  be  prepared  for  changes  that  may  seem 
even  revolutionary,  in  the  direction  of  guarding 
everywhere  the  rights  of  the  individual  person  as  a 
person,  and  the  interests  of  the  people  as  a  whole. 
Partial  attempts  to  secure  these  aims  are  to  be 
found  in  the  principles  of  the  initiative,  referendum, 
and  recall,  and  related  reforms.  Even  the  attempt 
to  apply  the  principle  of  recall  to  judges  is  probably 
to  be  interpreted  as  only  a  vigorous  protest  against 
the  extent  to  which  judicial  decisions  have  been 
guided  by  purely  legal  precedent  rather  than  essen- 
tial justice.  There  is,  undoubtedly,  a  growing  and 
not  wholly  unjustified  distrust  of  the  ability  of  the 
legal  mind  to  discern  common  human  justice. 
Fortunately,  there  are,  also,  encouraging  signs 
that  a  new  conception  of  the  legal  profession  is 
arising  in  the  minds  of  many  of  that  profession 
itself. 

2.  If  one  turns,  now,  from  this  general  legal  situ- 
ation to  specific  evidences  of  economic  abuses  and 
conditions  that  a  democratic  people  ought  not  to 
tolerate,  he  has  not  far  to  go  for  illustration.  First 
of  all,  there  stands  glaringly  out  the  extent  to 
which  national  and  state  legislation  has  been  con- 
trolled by  business  interests.  The  enormous  abuses 
of  the  tariff,  that  have  wrought  widespread  and 


334     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

unmeasured  injustice  to  the  masses  of  the  people, 
need  only  be  mentioned.  The  tremendous  diffi- 
culty with  which  any  pure  food  laws  have  been 
obtained  is  a  standing  national  disgrace,  and  clear 
proof  of  the  persistent  subordination  of  the  good 
of  the  people  to  commercial  interests.  And  it  is 
hard  to  speak  with  patience  of  the  steady  refusal  to 
give  an  adequate  parcels  post ;  of  the  obstacles 
constantly  put  in  the  way  of  legislation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  laborers,  of  children,  and  of  women; 
of  the  slowness  of  any  large  constructive  legisla- 
tion for  the  national  conservation  of  natural 
resources,  for  the  protection  of  the  health  of  the 
nation,  or  for  the  building  up  of  a  worthy  national 
department  of  education.  Commercial  interests 
have  been  so  dominant  that  legislation  has  been 
very  largely  a  series  of  compromises  between  the 
various  business  interests  of  different  sections ; 
and  the  large  problems  concerning  the  welfare  of 
the  people  as  a  whole  have  been  grossly  neglected. 
The  most  encouraging  element  in  the  situation 
to-day  is  the  evidence  of  an  increasing  number  of 
national  legislators  who  are  interpreting  their  trust 
in  truly  national  terms. 

The  betrayal  of  public  interests  has  been  quite 
as  manifest  in  the  legislation  of  the  states  and  of 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  335 

the  cities  as  in  that  of  the  nation.  And  the  cities 
have  especially  shown  that  the  business  interests 
were  very  generally  corrupting  agencies,  and  direct 
opponents  of  all  true  reform.  Fortunately,  in  both 
cities  and  states,  some  decided  gains  have  recently 
been  achieved,  that  point  the  way  to  distinctly 
better  and  more  representative  service  of  the  people. 
But  it  is  still  true  that  only  the  barest  beginning 
has  been  made  of  what  a  true  democracy  ought  to 
demand.  There  is,  as  yet,  no  approach  to  a  com- 
prehensive mastery  of ,  our  startlingly  new  con- 
ditions. 

3.  Quite  outside  the  sphere  of  legislation,  also, 
economic  abuses  that  fairly  threaten  the  life  of  a 
democracy  have  existed.  The  almost  universal 
practice  of  prodigious  watering  of  stocks  —  a  direct 
defrauding  of  the  people  as  a  whole;  the  careful 
keeping  of  all  real  power  of  control  of  corporations 
in  the  hands  of  a  mere  handful  of  men  —  giving 
them  in  the  end  practically  public  functions;  the 
abuse  of  pubhc  confidence  in  the  great  insurance 
companies,  and  in  other  lines  of  investment;  the 
general  obliviousness  of  capital  to  public  interests ; 
and  the  prevalent  determination  on  all  sides,  and 
by  all  kinds  of  expedients,  to  "charge  all  that  the 
traj6&c  will  bear,"  that  is  pushing  up  at  a  thousand 


336     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

points  the  cost  of  living  for  the  ordinary  man  —  all 
these  and  similar  phenomena  make  unmistakably 
plain  again  that  the  interests  of  all  the  people  are 
not  in  any  of  these  things  dominant,  and  that  the 
nation  is  failing  here  to  fulfill  its  trust  as  a  demo- 
cratic government.  Conditions  do  not  allow  to  a 
democracy  in  all  this  either  a  mere  let-alone  policy, 
or  a  policy  of  timid  and  ineffective  tinkering.  They 
demand,  once  more,  a  broad,  constructive,  and  con- 
sistently democratic  national  policy,  that  shall  grap- 
ple intelligently  and  effectively  with  these  evils. 

4.  To  all  this  must  be  added,  as  still  further  fo- 
menting the  sense  of  injustice  and  unrest  on  the  part 
of  the  poorer  classes,  the  stupendous  "conspicuous 
waste"  and  "conspicuous  leisure"  of  many  of  the 
very  rich  ;  their  cynical  indifference  to  the  burdens 
of  others,  and  especially  of  those  concerned  in  pro- 
ducing their  own  wealth ;  the  way  in  which  we  all 
find  it  so  easy  to  take  it  for  granted  that  it  is  quite 
as  it  should  be,  that  all  the  hard,  dirty,  disagreeable 
tasks  should  be  done  by  others.  That  there  is  an 
increasing  number  of  men  and  women  of  wealth  of 
the  highest  ideals,  and  who  themselves  deplore 
present  conditions,  and  would  do  all  in  their  power 
to  remedy  them,  is  never  to  be  forgotten.  But 
the  contrasts  between  the  economic  conditions  of  the 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  337 

very  rich  and  the  poor  are  so  immense  and  so  awful, 
that  it  is  impossible  for  any  true  democracy  to 
view  them  with  equanimity.  And  they  cannot  be 
necessary,  in  an  age  with  the  staggering  resources  of 
wealth  and  power  possessed  by  this  age.  As  a 
democracy  we  have  no  right  to  peace,  until  condi- 
tions, now  taken  as  a  matter  of  course,  if  not  as 
naturally  inevitable,  are  thoroughly  remedied. 

Let  one  bring  home  to  his  own  consciousness 
what  it  means  that,  in  a  highly  protected  industry, 
such  conditions  for  the  laborer  can  prevail  as  both 
the  "Pittsburg  Survey"  and  the  inspection  of 
the  Federal  Bureau  of  Labor  brought  out :  one 
man  in  three  working  seven  days  a  week;  very 
many  having  a  regular  twelve  hour  working  day ; 
and  a  large  proportion  of  low-pay  laborers.  Let 
him  visualize  the  abject  and  awful  miseries  of  the 
sixteen  months  strike  in  Westmoreland  County, 
Pennsylvania,  and  think  what  has  made  it  possible. 
Let  him  remember  the  helplessness  of  the  individual 
laborer  who  attempts  to  stand  alone  in  his  dealings 
with  capital,  and  yet  the  essentially  war  conditions 
under  which  he  is  coerced  by  the  Unions.  Let  him 
honestly  ask  himself  whether  he  is  not  bound  to 
know  that  there  are  thousands  in  this  land  of  the 
free   who   have,    under   present    economic    condi- 


338     THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

tions,  no  fair  chance  to  live  a  man's  life ;  who  are 
early  worked  out ;  whose  working  conditions  are 
such  that  they  lack  not  only  leisure,  but  nerve, 
for  any  possible  growth ;  who,  so  far  as  they  can 
stop  to  think  at  all,  must  think  of  themselves  as 
mere  means  for  the  life  of  others.  And  then  let 
him  remind  himself  that  this  is  a  Christian  democ- 
racy, in  an  age  of  resources  of  wealth  and  power 
beyond  the  dreams  of  previous  ages.  No  !  Such 
conditions  are  not  necessary.  They  can  be  cured ; 
and  a  democracy  must  cure  them  or  belie  its  name. 
The  nation  is  the  chief  factor  in  every  strike,  and 
in  all  those  conditions  that  lead  to  strikes.  Its 
good  offices  must  begin  with  remedial,  protective, 
and  constructive  legislation  that  make  such  labor- 
ing conditions  as  those  reviewed  impossible  any- 
where in  all  this  land.  And,  as  surely  as  the  nation 
has  a  right  to  demand  that  its  courts  shall  be  used 
to  replace  primitive  strife  between  individuals; 
so  surely  has  it  the  right  to  demand,  also,  that 
arbitration  by  the  courts  or  through  some  other 
legally  recognized  tribunal  shall  replace  industrial 
warfare.  The  community  is  generally  the  chief 
sufferer  in  a  prolonged  industrial  conflict,  and  its 
interest  is  paramount;  but  it  must  pursue  that 
general  interest  in  a  spirit  of  full  justice  to  all,  and 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  339 

in  clear  view  of  the  markedly  new  conditions  of  our 
time,  and  not  fall  back  upon  outworn  precedents. 
In  the  end  both  labor  and  capital  will  best  profit 
by  such  absolute  community  control ;  for  they  are 
engaged  in  a  great  common  task,  and  all  are  indis- 
solubly  knit  up  in  the  fabric  of  one  national  life, 
where  one  cannot  suffer  and  not  all  the  rest  suffer 
at  the  same  time. 

Every  social  maladjustment,  in  fact,  is  just  so  far 
an  indictment  of  a  democracy.  We  must  bring  all 
our  science,  all  our  inventive  skill,  all  our  social 
feeling  to  bear.  We  must  seriously  raise  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  laborer  is  now  having  his  lair  share 
of  the  wealth  which  is  the  joint  product  of  capital 
and  labor.  We  need  deep-going  search  for  some 
less  primitive  methods  of  determining  wages  than 
those  which  now  prevail.  We  need  honestly  to  ask 
whether  we  have  at  all  made  good  the  narrowing 
effects  on  the  workmen  of  the  extreme  division  of 
labor.  In  a  still  larger  way,  we  must  recognize  that 
the  real  wealth  of  the  nation  is  persons ;  and,  there- 
fore, we  need  broad  constructive  national  policies 
for  the  better  health,  the  normal  growth,  and  the 
wiser  and  completer  education  of  all.  There  can 
be  no  doubt,  for  one  thing,  that  the  community 
must  demand  far  greater  protection  against  the 


340     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ravages  of  sexual  diseases.  We  have  already  seen 
that  great  achievements  have  been  made  in  all 
these  lines ;  and  yet  for  vast  multitudes  if  not  for 
all,  very  much  yet  remains  to  be  done.  This 
demands,  throughout  our  national  life,  "investiga- 
tion, education,  legislation  —  a  program  for  ad- 
justment." 

And  we  may  undertake  such  a  program  with 
courage  ;  for  we  have  such  possibilities  as  the  world 
has  never  before  seen  to  bring  to  actuality  what 
Devine  calls  the  ''normal  community."  The 
wealth  of  both  the  new  outer  and  inner  world 
of  our  times  is  available  for  us  as  a  people,  in  per- 
haps greater  degree  than  for  any  other  nation.  The 
resources  of  wealth  and  power  over  nature  have 
increased  more  rapidly,  probably,  than  in  any  other 
people.  And  we  are  less  bound  by  precedent  than 
the  older  nations.  If  our  democracy  has  grave 
inconsistencies,  democracy  is  still  honestly  our 
national  ideal,  passionately  desired  and  pursued. 
We  have  the  right  to  expect  that  the  new  world  — 
of  modern  science  and  evolution,  of  the  historical 
spirit,  of  psychology,  of  sociology,  and  of  compara- 
tive religion  —  has  not  been  opened  to  us  in  vain ; 
but  that  its  full  intellectual  and  moral  contributions, 
as  seen  in  our  earlier  study,  are  not  to  be  denied  to 


A   TRUER   DEMOCRACY  34 1 

US.  We  may  justly  hope  that  our  science,  our 
inventive  skill  in  meeting  emergencies,  and  our 
social  feeling,  may  prove  adequate  to  the  many 
and  grave  problems  involved  in  the  attainment  of 
a  true  democracy. 

In  the  specific  questions^  now  before  us  and 
certain  to  arise  —  in  the  family,  in  household 
management,  in  industry,  in  education,  in  charity, 
in  politics  —  the  guiding  clue  is  quite  certain  to  be 
found  in  that  fundamental  reverence  for  the  person 
as  such,  that  is  basic  to  any  true  democracy.  It 
will  particularly  enable  us  to  see  that,  while, 
undoubtedly,  the  general  community  interest  is 
always  supreme,  yet  community  control,  for  the 
very  sake  of  the  common  good,  needs  so  to  be 
exercised  as  not  only  not  needlessly  to  interfere 
with  individual  initiative,  but  distinctly  and  pains- 
takingly to  guard  and  encourage  it.  For  com- 
munity development  depends  on  individual  initia- 
tive and  variation.  This  is  that  socialized  individ- 
ualism to  which  the  future  surely  belongs. 

Where  the  spirit  of  reverence  for  personality 
thoroughly  permeates  all  policies  and  all  conduct, 
and   is   accompanied   by  scientific  study  of   con- 

'  Cf.  e.g.  Croly,  The  Promise  of  American  Life;  Nearing, 
Social  Adjustment;   Jane  Addams,  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics. 


342      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

ditions,  neither  the  individual  nor  the  nation  can 
fail.  But  its  full  triumph,  and  its  triumph  at 
the  points  most  vital  to  the  inner  happiness  of  the 
race,  can  never  come  simply  by  legislation,  but 
only  when  this  spirit  actually  commands  the  con- 
science and  the  will  of  each  individual,  in  realms 
that  no  legislation  can  ever  reach.  For  such  a 
triumph,  deep  rehgious  conviction  is  necessary. 
For  democracy  is  both  an  ideal  and  a  faith.  The 
honest,  earnest,  unselfish  pursuit  of  a  democracy, 
thus  everywhere  reverent  of  personality  —  even 
long  before  its  fulfillment  —  would  bring  heahng 
and  health  to  our  national  Ufe ;  enable  it  to  render 
by  example  its  largest  possible  service  to  the 
world's  civilization;  and  best  fit  it,  at  the  same 
time,  for  sharing  directly  and  worthily  in  the 
triumph  of  ethical  ideals  in  all  international 
relations. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Program  of  Western  Civilization  in  its 
Spread  Over  the  World  :  The  Guiding  Prin- 
ciple IN  International  Life 

When  one  turns  from  the  life  of  the  nation  to 
that  of  the  world,  to  see  what  the  challenge  of 
present-day  conditions  there  involves,  he  is  forced 
to  consider  the  actual  course  which  Western  civili- 
zation has  taken  in  its  spread  over  the  world ;  to 
ask.  at  what  points  it  has  been  untrue  to  its  great 
source  in  the  Christian  principle  of  reverence  for 
personality;  and  so  to  determine  the  definite  de- 
mands made  to-day  upon  nations  and  individuals 
by  loyalty  to  this  supreme  guiding  principle.  Our 
discussion  may,  perhaps,  best  take  the  form  of  a 
succession  of  closely  related  propositions. 


THE     interaction     OF     THE     ECONOMIC     AND     THE 

religious 

I.  ^^The  two  great  forming  agencies  in  the  world's 
history,"    writes    Marshall,    in    his    Principles    of 

343 


344     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

Economics,  "have  been  the  religious  and  economic." 
On  the  one  hand,  the  economic  is  everywhere 
required  as  basis  for  civihzation,  —  for  man's  en- 
tire spiritual  life.  There  is  no  need  to  deny  or  to 
underestimate  the  immense  place  of  the  economic. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  ''religion,"  as  Principal 
Fairbairn  says,  "is  the  supreme  factor  in  the 
organizing  and  regulating  of  our  individual  and 
collective  Hfe."  We  have  seen  many  illustrations 
of  this  supremacy  of  religion  in  the  survey  already 
made,  and  have  been  compelled  to  recognize  how 
absolutely  basic  in  our  civilization  have  been  the 
great  moral-religious  convictions. 

2.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  it  should  be  espe- 
cially on  these  two  lines  —  economic  and  religious  — 
that  Western  civilization  has  spread  over  the  world. 
It  has  been,  that  is,  either  for  economic  or  religious 
reasons  that  the  West  has  gone  to  the  East.  Each 
movement  has  sought  a  world  conquest.  Each 
has  moved  forward  to  such  world  conquest  with  its 
own  aims  and  methods  and  spirit,  practically  inde- 
pendent of  the  other.  But  they  have  inevitably 
interacted,  generally  to  the  advantage  of  commerce, 
—  the  economic, — but  often  to  the  decided  disad- 
vantage of  the  religious,  —  the  missionary  move- 
ment. 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD     345 

There  has  been  no  concerted  movement,  it  should 
be  noticed,  to  introduce  Western  civilization  as  an 
entirety  into  the  East.  So  far  as  its  complete 
impression  has  been  made  upon  the  oriental  mind 
at  all,  it  has  been  rather  incidental  than  directly- 
purposed. 

3.  As  to  motives,  the  economic,  the  commercial 
motive,  in  this  world  extension  has  been,  of  course, 
private  gain.  But  there  are  three  reasons  why  the 
extension  of  commerce  has  also  tended  to  forward 
the  general  progress  of  civilization.  First,  because 
all  legitimate  commerce  has  its  basis  in  the  sense 
of  mutual  advantage,  and  something  of  valuable 
service  can  hardly  fail  thus  to  have  been  rendered 
in  these  commercial  transactions  between  the  East 
and  the  West.  Commerce  has,  also,  naturally 
cultivated  the  sense  of  many  new  wants ;  and  while, 
doubtless,  some  of  these  have  been  injurious  rather 
than  helpful,  many  of  them  have  been  of  a  kind  to 
further  a  higher  type  of  civilization.  Moreover, 
commerce  requires  for  its  successful  persistence 
commercial  honor  and  trust  in  conspicuous  degree. 
At  all  these  points,  then,  we  may  believe  that  the 
extension  of  Western  commerce  has  had  distinctly 
civilizing  contributions  to  make  in  the  Orient. 

The  religious  —  the  missionary  —  motive,  in  this 


346     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

extension  over  the  world  has  been  love,  —  the 
spirit  of  "humanity,"  the  desire  on  the  part  of 
Western  peoples  to  share  their  best  with  all.  The 
ethical  significance  of  such  a  world  movement  as 
this  of  foreign  missions  is  profound,  as  Wundt 
pointed  out,  in  the  passage  earlier  quoted  from 
him.  Moreover,  since  the  fundamental  convic- 
tions of  Christianity  really  underlie,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  great  principles  of  Western  civilization, 
the  civilizing  contribution  to  the  East  made  by  the 
religious  —  the  missionary  —  movement  is  basic 
and  essential.  Without  this,  indeed,  the  inner 
reality  of  Western  civilization  would  not  be  intro- 
duced into  the  Orient  at  all,  but  only  its  outer 
shell.  The  painfully  conscientious  scruples  about 
introducing  the  religious  side  of  our  civilization 
into  the  Orient,  on  the  part  of  those  who  enthu- 
siastically approve  a  vigorous  governmental  com- 
mercial propaganda,  must  seem  to  the  dispassionate 
observer  something  akin  to  a  joke. 

4.  The  religious  world  movement,  it  should,  there- 
fore, be  clearly  recognized,  must  accompany  the 
economic.  And  this  must  be  seen  not  only  by  the 
man  of  supreme  religious  interest,  but  by  all  who 
are  sincerely  interested  in  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion at  all.     For,  otherwise,  as  has  been  implied, 


CIVILIZATION  — ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD      347 

in  the  first  place,  Western  civilization  will  be 
seriously  misrepresented  in  the  East.  In  the 
second  place,  we  shall  be  bringing  to  the  Orient 
serious  problems,  without  the  help  of  the  great 
principles  necessary  to  their  solution.  And  just 
as  surely,  in  the  third  place,  we  shall  not  be  truly 
sharing  with  the  East  our  best,  but  only  the  lower 
and  more  material  aspects  of  our  civihzation ;  and 
thus  the  real  roots  of  that  civilization  will  not  have 
been  given  at  all. 

5.  European  civilization  was  originally  set  free 
for  this  spreading  over  the  world,  because  it  needed 
no  longer  to  fear  that  it  should  be  overrun  by 
barbarism.  Now  this  fear  was  banished  simply 
because  of  scientific  achievement,  in  the  discovery 
and  use  of  the  great  forces  of  nature  through 
mechanical  invention  and  scientific  organization. 
But  science,  as  we  have  seen,  is  "the  child  of 
duties,"  —  the  child  of  that  freedom  of  investiga- 
tion and  of  all  individual  initiative,  that  roots  in 
the  moral-religious  convictions  of  freedom  of  con- 
science and  reverence  for  personality.  European 
civilization,  therefore,  needed  no  longer  to  fear 
barbaric  overthrow  from  without ;  for  it  could  fall 
only  through  failure  in  individual  initiative  and 
invention,  and  through  failure  in  the  moral-reli- 


348     THE    MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

gious  convictions  out  of  which  they  grew,  Euro- 
pean civilization,  that  is,  could  fail  only  from 
within ;  and  it  was  thus  set  free  from  the  fear  of 
barbarism,  for  its  spread  over  the  world. 

6.  Western  civilization  was  introduced  into  the 
Orient,  it  should  also  be  noted,  for  commercial 
reasons,  and  in  almost  all  cases  practically  by  force. 
This  was  true  even  in  the  particularly  favorable 
case  of  America's  opening  of  Japan.  Japan's 
Prime  Minister  gracefully  referred  recently,  in 
private  conversation,  to  Japan's  indebtedness  to 
America  for  "gently  waking  it,"  as  he  said,  "out 
of  a  dream  Hfe."  Nevertheless,  we  must  clearly 
see  that  that  awakening  was  for  commercial  reasons 
and  was  practically  forced. 

Now,  so  far  as  the  progress  of  civilization  was 
concerned,  there  were  clear  dangers  in  both  aspects 
of  this  introduction  of  Western  civilization  to  the 
East.  In  the  first  place,  a  merely  commercial 
interest  was  quite  too  liable  to  become  simply 
selfish  exploitation  of  the  less  advanced  peoples. 
And,  in  the  second  place,  the  method  of  force  was 
at  obvious  variance  with  the  underlying  principles 
of  the  civilization  so  introduced.  It  was  not  a 
persuasive  introduction  to  a  civilization  having  a 
really   moral   basis.     In    the    spread    of   Western 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD      349 

civilization,  then,  the  commercial  movement  in 
almost  all  cases  preceded ;  the  reHgious  movement 
followed. 

7.  But  that  means  that  the  West  has  forced  upon 
the  East  and  upon  all  less  advanced  peoples,  judged 
by  the  Western  standard,  either  the  adoption  of 
Western  education,  inventions,  and  organization,  or 
definite  political  subordination  and  commercial  ex- 
ploitation in  varying  degrees.  There  has  been 
no  other  alternative.  Japan  took  the  only  possible 
way  to  a  recognized  place  among  the  independent 
nations  of  the  world  to-day,  by  the  adoption  of 
Western  education.  And  she  followed  literally, 
meanwhile,  Herbert  Spencer's  confidential  advice : 
"Keep  other  races  at  arm's  length  as  much  as 
possible."  Japan  thereby  avoided  in  large  degree 
immediate  exploitation  in  the  transition  period. 
China  has  now  seen  the  same  necessity  for  taking 
on  Western  education,  inventions,  and  organiza- 
tion. For  no  nation,  that  has  not  learned  scien- 
tific mastery  of  the  forces  of  nature  and  the  result- 
ing secret  of  steady  achievement  and  progress,  can 
stand  against  nations  that  have  learned  that 
lesson.  That  is,  the  adoption  of  Western  educa- 
tion is  ultimately  forced  upon  all  those  peoples  with 
whom   Western    civilization    comes   into    contact. 


350     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

The  adoption  of  Western  education  is  necessary  to 
preserve  the  very  existence  of  the  people  so  ap- 
proached. 

This  very  fact,  it  should  be  noticed,  of  the  forced 
adoption  of  Western  education  by  the  East  through 
the  commercial  pressure  of  the  West,  tends  to 
produce  a  more  superficial  and  external  type  of 
Western  civilization,  and  is,  therefore,  unfortunate 
from  the  point  of  view  of  a  world-civilization, 
when  compared  with  a  movement  coming  more  from 
within.  That  is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  ulti- 
mate ends  of  civiHzation,  it  would  have  been  better 
for  the  Orient  that  the  religious  movement  of 
Western  civilization  should  have  preceded  the 
economic. 

II 

HOW  FAR   THE   FAR   EAST   HAS   TAKEN  ON  WESTERN 
CIVILIZATION 

It  becomes  then  of  importance  to  see  just  how 
far  the  Far  East  in  its  most  advanced  example  — 
Japan  — has  actually  taken  on  Western  civiHza- 
tion. 

It  is  always  difficult  for  an  outsider  rightly  to  esti- 
mate the  stage  of  advancement  reached  by  another 
nation ;   and  in  attempting  any  judgment  we  may 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD   OVER   THE   WORLD     35 1 

well  remember,  first  of  all,  that  the  likenesses  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  West  are,  after  all,  far 
greater  than  the  differences ;  and  that  the  judgment 
of  the  average  stage  reached  by  the  nation  as  a 
whole  is  no  denial  of  the  far  greater  achievements 
of  multitudes  of  individuals.  In  the  case  of  the 
Japanese,  too,  their  noteworthy  and  constant 
courtesy  may  well  keep  us  from  rash  judgment; 
though  this  in  itself  may  make  an  accurate  estimate 
somewhat  more  difficult.  For,  as  one  long  resi- 
dent in  Japan  has  said,  "  there  are  perhaps  no 
people  under  Heaven  who  know  better  the  happy 
art  of  entertaining  their  guests,  and  none,  perhaps, 
who  succeed  better  in  preoccupying  them  with 
their  views."  Moreover,  in  attempting  an  ap- 
praisal of  Japan's  present  achievement,  it  is  only 
fair  to  recognize  that  she  is  probably  suffering 
now  in  the  West  from  an  exaggerated  underestimate, 
as  the  natural  reaction  from  an  earlier  exaggerated 
overestimate.  There  has  been  exaggeration  as 
to  the  amount  accomplished  in  the  new  period ;  — 
a  Japanese  is  quite  likely  to  assume  as  indisputable 
that  Japan  has  reached  in  fifty  years  what  it  took 
Europe  two  thousand  to  attain.  There  has  been 
exaggeration  as  to  the  suddenness  of  the  accom- 
plishment, ignoring  the  long  preparatory  causes. 


352      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

There  has  been  exaggeration,  also,  as  to  the  extent 
to  which  the  new  era  was  an  inner  movement,  due 
simply  to  the  Japanese  themselves,  —  underrating 
the  depth  of  the  debt  to  foreign  stimulus. 

The  truest  friend  of  Japan  to-day,  it  would 
seem,  is  the  man  who  neither  fulsomely  praises  nor 
unsympathetically  censures,  but  who  tries  to  tell 
the  real  truth  as  to  Japan's  present  condition. 
Lafcadio  Hearn's  estimate,  in  his  Japan,  an 
Interpretation  —  which  may  be  said  to  lie  midway 
between  the  exaggerated  estimate  of  his  earlier 
sketches  and  the  equally  exaggerated  contempt 
of  his  latest  writing  on  Japan,  his  letters  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain  —  seems  to  express  a  singularly  just 
and  admirably  balanced  judgment.  He  asks  him- 
self what  the  old  Greek  or  Egyptian  states  would 
have  done  in  Japan's  situation,  when  confronted  by 
the  commercial  pressure  of  the  West;  and  implies 
that  what  they  would  have  done,  Japan  actually 
did.  ''They  would  have  speedily  reconstructed 
their  patriarchal  society  to  meet  the  sudden  peril ; 
they  would  have  adopted  with  astonishing  success 
all  the  scientific  machinery  that  they  could  use ; 
they  would  have  created  a  formidable  army  and  a 
highly  efficient  navy;  they  would  have  sent  their 
young  aristocrats  abroad  to  study  alien  convention 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE    WORLD      353 

and  to  qualify  for  diplomatic  duty;  they  would 
have  estabUshed  a  new  system  of  education,  and 
obliged  their  children  to  study  many  new  things; 
but  toward  the  higher  emotional  and  intellectual 
life  of  that  alien  civilization,  they  would  naturally 
exhibit  indifference :  its  best  literature,  its  philos- 
ophy, its  broader  forms  of  tolerant  religion  could 
make  no  profound  appeal  to  their  moral  and  social 
experience."  ^ 

This  judgment  recognizes  both  the  prodigious 
achievement  of  Japan's  last  fifty  years,  and  its 
real  limitations.  For  it  must  be  probably  recog- 
nized, that,  outside  the  comparatively  small 
number  in  Japan's  fifty  millions  who  have  entered 
somewhat  profoundly  into  appreciation  of  the 
essentially  Christian  sources  of  Western  civiUza- 
tion,  that  civilization  in  Japan  is  more  an  ex- 
ternal garb  than  an  inner  disposition  and  convic- 
tion. Nothing  more  was  to  be  expected  in  so  brief 
a  period.  Nothing  more  has  been  accompHshed  for 
the  nation  as  a  whole,  —  though  multitudes  of 
individuals  have  gone  further.  This  conviction 
grows  on  one,  as  he  sees  more  clearly  Japan's 
present  situation.  No  thoughtful  man  can  wonder 
at  this  inner  limitation  in  Japan's  taking  on  of 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  482. 


354     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

Western  civilization,  when  he  remembers  to  how 
small  an  extent  many,  even  in  Western  nations, 
have  entered  into  the  fundamental  principles  of  a 
democratic  civilization. 

The  surest  touchstone  of  a  civilization  probably 
is  that  principle  of  the  social  consciousness,  — 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  and  its  out- 
come, —  the  scientific  spirit ;  and,  judged  by  the 
social  consciousness  and  the  scientific  spirit,  it 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Japan,  as  a  whole,  has 
still  far  to  travel.  The  Orientals  may  be  said  to 
be  our  contemporary  ancients.  It  is  exceedingly 
interesting  to  see  that  exactly  the  moral-religious 
exclusive  state  of  the  ancient  world.  Old  Japan  had 
only  fifty  years  ago ;  exactly  the  same  strenuously 
communal  type  of  civilization ;  exactly  the  same 
absolute  domination  of  the  individual  by  the  state. 
Hearn  points  out  in  detail,  "how  small  were  the 
chances  for  personality  to  develop  and  assert 
itself"  in  Old  Japan.  There  was  no  distinction 
between  religion  and  ethics,  nor  between  ethics 
and  custom.  Government  and  religion  were  the 
same.  Custom  and  law  were  identified.  "A 
man's  life  was  regulated  even  to  the  least  particulars 
—  even  to  the  quality  of  his  footgear  and  headgear, 
the  cost  of  his  wife's  hairpins  and  the  price  of  his 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD   OVER   THE   WORLD     355 

child's  doll."  And  he  says  of  the  period  under 
the  Shogunate:  "This  means  something  incom- 
parably harsher  than  the  socialistic  tyranny  of 
early  Greek  society ;  it  means  religious  communism 
doubled  with  a  miHtary  despotism  of  the  most 
terrible  kind."  Under  the  Tokugawa  rule,  "there 
was  little  or  nothing  to  strive  after :  for  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people,  there  were  no  prizes  to  win." 
This  was  Japan's  inheritance  fifty  years  ago. 
Great  and  striking  changes  she  has  made :  in  the 
abohtion,  both  of  the  shogun  and  of  the  daimios ; 
in  the  abolition  of  slavery;  in  the  raising  of  all 
outcast  classes ;  in  the  enactment  of  liberal  legisla- 
tion ;  and  in  the  adoption  of  widespread  education. 
But  she  has  not  escaped  —  and  it  could  not  be 
expected  that  she  should  escape  —  the  pressure  of 
her  immediate  inheritance  of  a  crushingly  com- 
munal type  of  civilization.  It  is  not  strange, 
therefore,  that  she  should  not  have  been  able  to 
enter,  in  anything  like  full  measure,  into  either  the 
scientific  spirit  or  the  social  consciousness.  The 
place  of  science,  in  its  technical  aspect,  in  education, 
and  as  the  basis  of  industrial  development,  has  been, 
of  course,  assured  by  commercial  pressure ;  but 
it  seems  to  be  the  material  fruit  of  science  that 
excites  enthusiasm,  rather  than  the  scientific  spirit 


356     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

as  such.  And  for  the  development  of  the  social 
consciousness  in  the  Orient,  commerce  will  still 
less  suffice.  The  dependence  here  must  be  almost 
wholly  upon  the  religious  factor  in  Western  civili- 
zation. 

For  one,  therefore,  who  has  held  somewhat 
roseate  views  of  Japan's  achievement,  and  has 
even  wondered  whether  the  work  of  the  mis- 
sionary in  Japan  might  not  be  already  accom- 
phshed,  certain  disappointment  is  in  store,  as  he 
looks  more  closely  into  the  national  life.  For 
.phenomena  like  these  confront  him,  upon  such  a 
closer  view :  the  distinctly  subordinate  position 
of  women ;  the  backward  condition  of  women's 
education,  even  to-day ;  the  practically  total  ab- 
sence of  what  can  fairly  be  called  liberal  education 
in  the  Government  system ;  ^  the  marked  limita- 
tion in  the  educational  opportunities  offered  by 
the   Government,   in   all   but   the   lowest   grades; 

'  Upon  this  point  Mr.  Hearn  testifies:  "The  aim  of  Western 
education  is  the  cultivation  of  individual  ability  and  personal 
character,  the  creation  of  an  independent  and  forceful  being. 
Now  Japan's  education  has  always  been  conducted,  and,  in  spite 
of  superficial  appearances,  is  still  being  conducted,  mostly  upon 
the  reverse  plan.  Its  object  never  has  been  to  train  the  individual 
for  independent  action,  but  to  train  him  for  cooperative  action,  — 
to  fit  him  to  occupy  an  exact  place  in  the  mechanism  of  a  rigid 
society."     {Op.  cit.,  p.  460.) 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE    WORLD      357 

the  practically  military  oligarchy  in  its  govern- 
ment; the  pitifully  limited  suffrage  (1.6  per  cent 
of  the  total  population) ;  ^  the  absolute  power  of 
the  Emperor  or  of  his  little  circle  of  advisers,  even 
with  the  Constitution ;  the  ominous  lack  of  any 
true  and  vigorous  political  parties ;  the  absolute 
want  of  representation  in  the  Government  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  common  people ;  ^  the  enormous 
burden  of  taxation ;  ^  the  extent  to  which  the  old 
communalism  still  prevails,  both  in  the  attitude 
of  the  Government  and  among  the  people  at 
large,    even   in    spite   of   liberalizing   legislation ;  ^ 

1  Cf.  Millard,  America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Question,  p.  90. 

^  "It  is  difficult  to  determine  this  matter  with  exactness,  but  I 
believe  that  the  segment  of  the  Japanese  people  which  has  no 
vote  pays  80  per  cent  of  the  national  and  local  taxes.  The  pro- 
letariat in  Japan  to-day  is  in  a  stale  of  political  and  industrial 
peonage,  and  really  has  less  influence  in  the  Government  than  has 
the  moujik  in  Russia  or  the  coolie  in  China."  (Millard,  Op.  cit., 
p.  96.) 

'"The  average  Japanese  now  pays  40  per  cent  of  his  total 
earnings  in  taxes."  In  the  decade  1898-1908,  population  in- 
creased 8  per  cent ;  the  average  increase  of  earnings  was  30  per 
cent;  and  the  increase  of  taxation  was  400  per  cent.  (Millard, 
Op.  cit.,  p.  109.) 

^"As  for  the  tribal  or  clan  law,  it  survives  to  the  degree  of 
remaining  almost  omnipotent  in  administrative  circles,  and  in  all 
politics."  "  Independence  of  personal  action,  in  the  Western  sense, 
is  still  almost  inconceivable."  Hearn  speaks  of  "the  old  com- 
munistic organization   which   is  yet   maintained   in   a   hundred 


358     THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  lack  of  true  academic  freedom,  of  freedom  of 
investigation,  or  of  freedom  of  speech,  especially 
where  certain  governmental  historical  theories  are 
involved,  like  that  underlying  the  Emperor  cult; 
and  the  enormous  amount  of  espionage.^  These 
are  some  of  the  evidences  that  show  that  the 
social  consciousness  and  the  scientific  spirit  can 
hardly  be  regarded  to  be  as  yet  regnant  in  the 
life  of  Japan.  That  is  to  say.  Western  civiliza- 
tion has  by  no  means  won  its  full  victory,  even 
in  the  most  advanced  nation  of  the  Orient. 


Ill 

COMPLETION    OF    THE    WORLD-WIDE     EXTENSION    OF 
COMMERCE   AND   RELIGION 

Now,  the  world-wide  extension  of  commerce  — 
the  economic  side  of  Western  civilization  —  is  prac- 

forms."  "The  persistence  of  old  sentiment  and  custom  nullifies 
many  of  the  rights  legally  conferred."  "In  Japan,  the  peculiar 
constitution  of  society  lends  excessive  power  to  social  intrigues 
directed  against  obscure  ability."  "The  most  sinister  circum- 
stance of  official  life  is  the  absence  of  moral  freedom  —  the  absence 
of  right  to  act  according  to  one's  own  convictions  of  justice." 
(Hearn,  Op.  cil.,  pp.  428,  427,  443.  448,  449,  468.) 

iWeale  speaks  of  the  "Japanese  police  system"  as  "un- 
doubtedly one  of  the  most  detestable  in  existence."  (The  Coming 
Struggle  in  Eastern  Asia,  p.  368.) 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE    WORLD     359 

tically  complete  in  our  day,  as  Mr.  Bryce  has 
borne  witness.  Western  religion,  too,  is  now  at 
work  in  virtually  every  land ;  here,  too,  there  are 
no  closed  doors.  That  is,  from  now  on,  the  move- 
ment of  Western  civilization  in  both  lines  must  be 
intensive  rather  than  extensive.  There  are  no 
wholly  new  lands  or  peoples  for  either  Western 
commerce  or  Western  religion  to  enter.  And  that 
means  that  the  world  is  one  world  as  never  before, 
both  economically  and  religiously.  There  is  now 
opportunity,  such  as  the  world  has  never  before 
seen,  for  the  world-wide  diffusion  both  of  Western 
goods  and  Western  ideas.  Commercial  enterprises 
at  all  capable  of  such  extension  tend  more  and 
more  to  become  world-wide ;  and  a  similar  state- 
ment may  be  made  concerning  religious  ideas. 

And  this  oneness  of  the  world  means,  not  only 
opportunity  for  world-wide  diffusion,  —  commer- 
cially and  rehgiously,  —  but  means,  also,  that  the 
rivalry  of  both  goods  and  ideas  is  now  for  the 
first  time  world-wide,  and  therefore  keener  than 
ever.  Changes  in  method  or  ideal  anywhere, 
whether  in  business  or  in  religion,  make  a  differ- 
ence everywhere.  That  is,  both  commercially  and 
rehgiously,  the  world  tends  increasingly  toward 
equalization   of   standards ;     and    this   cannot   be 


360     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ignored  by  either  the  commercial  or  the  religious 
forces.  No  people  can  be  any  longer  a  dumping 
ground  for  cast-off  goods  or  cast-off  ideas  from 
the  West,  whether  in  the  interests  of  commerce 
or  in  the  conceived  interests  of  orthodoxy.  No 
community  may  now  be  shut  away  from  the  tides 
of  the  world  life. 

IV 

WHY  THE   ORIENT  MUST   GO  FURTHER 

The  very  fact  that  if  Western  civilization  is 
further  to  advance  in  its  conquest  of  the  world, 
it  must  be  an  intensive  rather  than  an  extensive 
advance,  leads  us  to  ask  why,  in  the  rivalry  of  the 
occidental  and  oriental  civilizations,  the  Orient 
must  go  further  than  even  its  most  advanced 
nation  —  Japan  —  has  yet  gone,  if  its  nations  are 
to  be  able  to  maintain  their  place  among  the  lead- 
ing nations  in  this  intense  and  world-wide  rivalry 
of  the  present  day.  This  cannot  be  a  question 
merely  of  armies  and  navies.  It  cannot  be  a  ques- 
tion merely  of  numbers  or  of  cheap  labor,  even 
on  the  commercial  side.  For  even  military  effi- 
ciency, when  measured  in  conflict  with  the  nations 
of  the  most  advanced  civilization,  demands  more 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS   SPREAD   OVER   THE   WORLD     36 1 

than  the  qualities  of  a  merely  communal  civiliza- 
tion, as  we  have  already  seen.  And  in  the  modern 
world,  power  to  make  war  goes  back  ultimately 
to  ability  to  borrow  money,  and  must  bank  on 
economic  progress;  and  this,  also,  in  the  stern 
rivalry  of  the  unified  world,  demands  more  than 
the  qualities  of  a  communal  civilization. 

All  this  means  that  finally  it  must  be  seen 
that  the  Orient  must  take  on  generally,  and  in 
its  inner  spirit,  the  great  fundamental  moral  and 
religious  convictions  and  ideals  of  Western  civili- 
zation, if  it  is  steadily  to  reap  its  fruits.  Even 
from  the  point  of  view  simply  of  civihzation,  it 
must  be  seen  that  Western  civilization  will  not 
have  really  come  into  the  Orient,  apart  from  such 
underlying  Christian  convictions.  Even  her  most 
advanced  nation  —  Japan  —  needs  Christianity 
preeminently,  both  on  the  economic  and  on  the 
religious  side. 

Even  commercially  she  needs  these  deeper  aspects 
of  Western  civilization.  She  needs  them,  first,  to 
correct  her  prevailingly  low  type  of  commercial 
morality ;  but  she  needs  them  still  more  to  fit  her 
continuously  for  the  intenser  and  world-wide  in- 
dustrial rivalry  of  our  time.  For  success  in  such 
industrial  rivalry  can  only  depend  ultimately  on 


362      THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

the  freedom  of  individual  initiative;  and  Japan's 
tendency  to  override  the  individual  by  her  com- 
munal type  of  civilization  will  put  her  finally  at 
serious  disadvantage  in  industrial  competition  with 
nations  of  a  more  individualistic  type.  For  this 
individual  initiative  has  full  scope  only  in  a  coun- 
try where  it  is  conserved  by  a  deep  moral-rehgious 
conviction,  not  where  it  is  mechanically  taken  on 
for  present  poHcy.  Here,  too,  it  would  seem  that 
Mr.  Hearn  has  admirably  stated  the  essence  of 
the  matter  when  he  says:  "Now  the  absence  of 
individual  liberty  as  in  modern  Japan  would  cer- 
tainly appear  to  be  nothing  less  than  a  national 
danger."  "Only  races  long  accustomed  to  personal 
liberty,  —  liberty  to  think  about  matters  of  ethics 
apart  from  matters  of  government,  —  liberty  to 
consider  questions  of  right  and  wrong,  justice  and 
injustice,  independently  of  poHtical  authority,  — 
are  able  to  face  without  risk  the  peril  now  men- 
acing Japan."  For  "the  disintegration  of  the 
patriarchal  system"  (which  in  ancient  Europe 
occupied  centuries  and  was  "slow  and  normal" 
and  from  within)  in  Japan  "is  taking  place 
under  enormous  outside  pressure,  operating  with 
the  rapidity  of  electricity  and  steam."  "The 
capacity  for  industrial  competition  cannot  be  made 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE    WORLD     363 

to  depend  upon  the  misery  of  women  and  children ; 
it  must  depend  upon  the  intelligent  freedom  of 
the  individual ;  and  the  society  which  represses 
this  freedom,  or  suffers  it  to  be  repressed,  must 
remain  too  rigid  for  competition  with  societies  in 
which  the  liberties  of  the  individual  are  strictly 
maintained."  ^ 

This  judgment  of  Mr,  Hearn  seems  to  put  its 
finger  upon  the  exact  source  of  the  industrial 
weakness  of  states  having  a  dominantly  communal 
type  of  civilization,  when  brought  into  rivalry 
with  states  of  the  individuahstic  type.  And  it 
gives  assurance  that  ultimately,  in  the  world-wide 
rivalry,  the  states  of  Western  civilization  —  so 
long  as  they  remain  absolutely  true  to  their  own 
fundamental  principles  —  may  be  expected  to 
maintain  themselves  to  the  end,  even  in  spite  of 
greater  numbers  and  cheap  labor  in  the  rival 
states. 

But  if  the  Orient,  as  represented  in  Japan,  needs 
fundamental  Christian  convictions  even  com- 
mercially, still  more  does  she  need  the  help  of 
Christianity  religiously.  For  Japan  has  already 
taken  on  enough  of  science   to   threaten  all  her 

1  Op.  ciL,  pp.  492,  496.  Cf.  Griffis,  The  Japanese  Nation  in 
Evolution,  p.  118. 


364     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

older  religious  faiths;  and  the  same  statement 
holds  for  India,  and  in  only  less  degree  for  China. 
Moreover,  it  is  impossible  in  the  case  of  Japan, 
for  the  same  reason,  that  the  present  Emperor- 
cult  should  stand.  It  furnishes  an  utterly  impos- 
sible religious  basis  for  the  ethical  life  of  a  nation 
in  this  day  of  the  world,  —  having  no  possibility 
of  universal  extension.  That  is,  Japan's  ethics 
are  not  built  on  a  universal  human  basis,  but 
upon  a  purely  Japanese  historical  fiction.  Noth- 
ing in  Japan  seemed  to  the  writer  so  utterly  pa- 
thetic and  pitiful  as  to  see  a  great  people  so  try 
to  found  their  ethical  life.  The  very  possibiUty 
of  the  attempt,  and  its  present  temporary  success, 
demonstrate  how  communal  still  is  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Japan,  and  make  clear  the  close  kinship 
of  even  its  present  attitude  with  the  moral-religious 
ancestral  exclusive  state  of  the  ancient  world. 
The  conscience  of  Japan,  too,  as  the  conscience  of 
India,  and  in  only  less  degree  of  China,  has  been 
already  really  carried  for  many  Christian  ideals. 

The  Orient  must  have,  therefore,  in  Japan,  not 
less,  but  even  more,  than  in  any  other  part  of  it, 
a  religion  that  will  stand  the  rational  and  ethical 
test  of  the  scientific  spirit  and  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness.    It  is  hardly  open  to  doubt,  that  that 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD      365 

religion  for  Japan,  as  for  the  rest  of  the  Orient, 
must  be  Christianity.  Certainly  the  West  has  no 
better  religious  basis  to  offer  for  the  moral  life  or 
for  the  foundation  of  civilization.  And  our  whole 
discussion  goes  to  show  how  profoundly  such  a 
moral-religious  basis  is  needed  in  the  intenser 
struggle  of  our  times,  and  of  the  already  fore- 
shadowed future. 

Japan's  danger,  as  that  of  the  other  oriental 
peoples,  is,  that  she  should  fail  to  realize  how 
unified  a  thing,  after  all.  Western  civilization  is; 
and  how  impossible,  therefore,  it  becomes  per- 
manently to  reap  its  fruits  and  reject  its  roots. 
She  is  in  danger,  thus,  of  being  satisfied  with  the 
machinery,  the  methods,  the  externals,  and  the 
signs  of  Western  civilization,  and  so  of  losing  its 
inner  fructifying  spirit,  which  alone  insures  steady 
advance  in  civilization. 

V 

WHY    THE   WEST   MUST   BE    MORE    CHRISTIAN   IN   ITS 
DEALINGS   WITH   THE   EAST 

But,  once  more,  just  as  surely  as  the  Orient  must 
go  much  further  in  taking  on  the  basic  moral- 
religious  convictions  of  the  West,  if  it  is  to  come 
into  the  higher  reaches  of  civilization  at  all;   even 


366     THE    MORAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

SO  surely  and  for  like  reasons  must  the  West  be 
more  genuinely  Christian  in  its  dealings  with  the 
East,  if  it  is  to  maintain  the  position  already 
reached  and  go  forward  to  further  achievement. 

For  our  own  civilization  roots  ultimately,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  the  great  moral-religious  and  Chris- 
tian conviction  of  reverence  for  the  person  as  such. 
This  is  its  real  source,  and  this  its  highest  test. 
It  is  the  highest  civilization  —  if  it  be  so,  indeed 
—  just  because  it  best  stands  this  test  of  reverence 
for  the  value  and  sacredness  of  the  individual 
person,  and  builds  on  this  principle  most  clearly 
and  consciously.  The  great  and  rapid  progress  of 
its  later  years  all  goes  back  to  this.  It  has  amply 
proved  itself  the  great  condition  of  social  efficiency, 
of  scientific,  economic,  and  social  progress,  —  never 
to  be  safely  violated.  Western  civilization,  there- 
fore, cannot  with  impunity  ignore  this  root  prin- 
ciple of  its  own  life ;  but  must  be  consciously  and 
energetically  guided  by  it,  in  its  entire  spread 
over  the  world  and  to  the  Orient,  whether  on  the 
commercial  or  on  the  religious  side. 

Here,  China  is  just  at  present  the  center  of 
interest  on  the  commercial  side.  For  a  disin- 
terested observer  to  note  carefully  the  situation  in 
China  —  the  enormous  extent  of  foreign  domina- 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE   WORLD     367 

tion,  the  fact  that  all  its  best  ports  are  in  foreign 
hands,  the  constant  aggressions,  the  bulldozing 
methods,  the  systematic  exploitation  —  is  to  have 
his  blood  boil,  and  not  only  to  cease  to  wonder 
at  the  Boxer  revolution  and  the  unrest  in  China, 
but  rather  to  marvel  that  the  anti-foreign  spirit  is 
not  much  stronger  and  more  manifest  than  it  is. 
For,  as  The  World's  Chinese  Students'  Journal,  for 
July,  1910,  says,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  Boxer 
revolution  "was  the  partition  rumors  engendered 
by  greedy  foreign  powers  and  encouraged  by  the 
foreign  press."  An  English  admiral  had  even  pub- 
lished a  great  work  on  The  Break-up  of  China; 
and  the  Journal  goes  on  to  add:  "Although  the 
rumor  of  partition  has  subsided,  yet  foreign  aggres- 
sions are  as  strong,  if  not  stronger,  than  ever, 
Japan  by  her  cunning,  unexpected  by  the  Chinese, 
has  despoiled  China  of  her  fairest  Northern  terri- 
tory for  commercial  and  political  exploitations, 
Russia,  though  defeated,  still  continues  her  menac- 
ing activities  in  the  North ;  France  is  encroaching 
upon  the  South,  while  Germany  still  continues  her 
imperialistic  policy  in  Shantung."  One  is  glad  to 
recognize  that  there  has  been  some  moderating  of 
the  aggressive  attitude  toward  China  on  the  part 
of  some  of  the  Powers. 


368      THE   MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

On  the  religious  side,  in  the  approach  of  Western 
civilization  to  the  East,  there  is  a  similar  danger, 
from  lack  of  reverence  for  the  best  in  the  peoples 
to  whom  the  missionary  goes.  Here,  too,  the 
most  thorough  and  delicate  application  of  the 
principle  of  reverence  for  personality  is  demanded. 
It  may  well  be  doubted,  for  example,  whether  it 
was  not  a  mistake  in  both  China  and  Japan  to 
have  fought  ancestor  worship  as  idolatry,  so  mak- 
ing a  sin  of  what  may  have  been  no  sin,  instead 
of  permeating  it  with  a  worthy  interpretation  that 
should  preserve  its  best;  though  the  ominous 
power  of  the  dead  hand  in  both  countries  is  not 
to  be  forgotten.  In  any  case  this  purpose,  on  the 
part  of  the  missionary,  of  sympathetically  appre- 
ciating and  sacredly  guarding  and  preserving  the 
best  in  the  whole  historical  inheritance  of  the 
people  to  whom  he  goes  —  not  even  allowing  them 
to  lose  it  where  they  themselves  would  lightly  let 
it  go  —  must  be  a  ruling  purpose  in  missionary 
policy.  For  it  is  a  profoundly  serious  matter  to 
cut  a  people  off  from  its  historical  inheritance.  It 
tends  to  make  Christian  converts,  strangers  and 
exotics  in  their  own  land.  It  makes  them  Chris- 
tians, as  it  were,  by  preserving  them  in  individual 
test  tubes,  and  so  prevents  them  from  being  true 


CIVILIZATION  — ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE    WORLD      369 

leaven  in  the  midst  of  their  own  people.  One  is 
glad  to  recognize  that  this  reverent  attitude  is  to 
be  found  in  all  the  best  missionaries. 

Now,  the  policy  of  simple  commercial  exploita- 
tion has  calamitous  effects  both  commercially  and 
religiously.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  short-sighted 
policy,  even  on  the  commercial  side,  as  Mr.  Taft's 
words  at  Shanghai,  earlier  quoted,  clearly  show. 
Japan  has  already  experienced  in  China's  boycott 
how  costly  may  be  the  commercial  penalty  of  ruth- 
less dealing  with  another  people.  And  Sir  Harry 
H.  Johnston's  remark  upon  the  African  situation 
is  also  illuminating  in  this  connection:  "It  is  a 
grave  mistake  to  suppose  that  negro  Africa  has 
been  conquered  —  the  ease  with  which  the  white 
man  has  implanted  himself  in  Africa  as  governor, 
exploiter,  and  teacher  is  due  much  more  to  the 
work  of  the  missionary  societies  than  to  the  use 
of  machine  guns." 

But  the  policy  of  mere  exploitation  is  not  only 
short-sighted  commercially,  it  has  a  plainly  dis- 
astrous effect  on  the  religious  campaign  as  well. 
Basil  Hall  Chamberlain's  sober  words,  in  the  midst 
of  his  prismatic  discussion  of  "Things  Japanese," 
bring  a  serious  challenge  to  the  advancing  forces  of 
Western  civihzation,  whether  commercial  or    re- 


37°     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

ligious:  "We  feel  absolutely  certain  of  one  thing, 
namely,  that  missionary  enterprise  is  impeded  by 
the  openly  immoral  politics  of  the  (so-called)  Chris- 
tian nations.  When  Protestant  England  grabs  at 
Hongkong,  Weihaiwei  and  Thibet,  while  'Holy 
Russia'  grabs  at  sundry  other  provinces  of  a  coun- 
try which  has  never  done  either  of  the  aggressors 
any  harm;  when  France  and  Germany,  anti- 
clerical at  home,  eagerly  avail  themselves  of  each 
bespattered  priest  or  battered  mission  house  to 
exact  some  commercial  advantage  or  snatch  some 
strip  of  territory  abroad,  what  is  the  Far-Eastern 
to  think?"  "They  feel  that  physical  compulsion 
and  spiritual  influence  cannot  be  successfully 
yoked  together,  that  what  has  come  to  be  known 
as  the  'Gospel  and  Gunboat  policy'  is  a  contra- 
diction in  terms."  And  he  adds  his  belief  that 
"the  naturalization  of  the  missionaries  in  the  land 
of  their  labors,  their  complete  subjection  to  native 
law  and  rejection  of  all  diplomatic  interference  on 
their  behalf,  would  at  once  enormously  increase 
their  influence."  ^ 

All  this  means,  then,  that  the  policy  of  simple 
exploitation    applied    by    the   West    to    the    East 
defeats  the  true  spread  of  Western  civilization  on 
'  Things  Japanese,  p.  334. 


CIVILIZATION  — ITS    SPREAD   OVER   THE   WORLD     37 1 

both  sides.  And,  once  more,  one  cannot  do  better 
than  to  allow  Mr.  Hearn  to  voice  one's  own  con- 
viction, while  rejoicing  in  the  moral  fervor  of  his 
words:  "Those  races  which  lead  are  the  races 
who  first  learned  that  the  highest  power  is  ac- 
quired by  the  exercise  of  forbearance,  and  that 
liberty  is  best  maintained  by  the  protection  of  the 
weak,  and  by  the  strong  repression  of  injustice. 
Unless  we  be  ready  to  deny  the  whole  of  the  moral 
experience  thus  gained,  —  unless  we  are  willing  to 
assert  that  the  religion  in  which  it  has  been  ex- 
pressed is  only  the  creed  of  a  particular  civiliza- 
tion, and  not  a  religion  of  humanity,  —  it  were 
difficult  to  imagine  any  ethical  justification  for 
the  aggressions  made  upon  alien  peoples  in  the 
name  of  Christianity  and  enhghtenment."  "The 
plain  teaching  of  sociology  is  that  the  higher  races 
cannot  with  impunity  cast  aside  their  moral  ex- 
perience in  dealing  with  feebler  races,  and  that 
Western  civilization  will  have  to  pay,  sooner  or 
later,  the  full  penalty  of  its  deeds  of  oppression."  ^ 
The  question,  therefore,  is  not  so  much  whether 
we  can  exploit  the  Orient,  as  whether  in  the 
exploitation  we  are  to  lose  our  own  best,  fritter 
away  our  own  life,  sap  the  foundations  of  all  our 

^Op.  cit.,  pp.  521,  522. 


372      THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

own  advance,  by  allowing  the  commercial  and 
material  aspects  of  our  civilization  to  dominate  the 
spiritual.  For  all  this  is  to  build,  here  too,  only 
"greater  barns,"  while  we  forget  the  intolerable 
irony  of  the  voice  that  shall  yet  be  borne  in  upon 
us,  "Thou  Fool."  Is  the  progressive  wider  and 
wider  sale  of  "pinhead"  and  "peacock"  cigarettes, 
of  kerosene  oil,  and  of  corrugated  iron,  even  if  it 
end  finally  in  their  world-wide  conquest,  the  ulti- 
mate end  of  Western  civilization  and  the  meaning 
of  life?  To  violate  those  high  spiritual  convic- 
tions and  ideals  that  are  the  very  soul  of  our 
civilization  in  our  dealings  with  any  people  is 
to  lose  our  own  life.  For  Booker  Washington's 
principle  holds  for  nations  as  well  as  for  men, 
that  you  cannot  hold  another  in  the  ditch  without 
staying  in  the  ditch  yourself. 

And  the  matter  goes  still  deeper.  Nothing  is 
more  clear  in  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the 
race  than  that  the  great  steps  have  not  been 
taken  without  sacrifice,  without  long,  steady, 
patient,  unselfish  leadership ;  and  the  movements 
that  have  been  so  led  have  commanded  the  future. 
A  rational,  ethical  democracy,  toward  which  our 
sociologists  tell  us  the  trend  is  steadily  setting  the 
world  over,  even  in  a  single  state  requires  unselfish 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS   SPREAD   OVER   THE    WORLD     373 

leadership.  Still  more  must  leadership  in  this 
constantly  more  and  more  unified  world-civiliza- 
tion demand  such  unselfishness,  —  genuine  loyalty 
to  the  moral-religious  ideals  of  that  social  con- 
sciousness that  voices  the  inner  meaning  of 
Western  civilization.  That  alone  will  determine 
whether  the  leadership  is  to  remain  on  the  whole 
with  the  Teutonic  races  as  an  entirety,  or  with 
the  English-speaking  peoples,  or  to  pass  to  some 
other.  The  conditions  of  leadership  are  known. 
They  are  not  obscure.  Just  now,  for  this  very 
moral  reason,  America  has  something  like  a  genuine 
potential  leadership  in  determining  oriental  policy ; 
though  her  hands  have  not  been  wholly  clean. 
Such  leadership  cannot  be  chosen  selfishly  and 
schemed  for.  It  will  cost  the  nation,  to  whom  it 
ultimately  comes,  sacrifice,  willingness  to  stand  for 
principles  at  any  cost,  persistent,  reverent  regard 
for  the  best  growth  of  others,  loyalty  everywhere 
to  the  guiding  principle  of  reverence  for  person- 
ality. Of  such  is  the  kingdom  that  is  to  be,  — 
the  moral  leadership  that  shall  come  of  right  and 
inevitably  and  without  claim.  "Whosoever  would 
be  first  among  you,  shall  be  servant  of  all." 

In  other  words,  that  one  of  the  strong  nations 
that  most  steadily,  most  genuinely,  most  inwardly, 


374     THE   MORiVL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

and  most  delicately  applies  in  all  its  international 
relations  the  principle  of  reverence  for  the  person, 
as  the  truest  man  applies  it  in  relations  to  his 
fellow-men,  —  that  nation  will  ultimately  have 
and  deserve  the  moral  leadership  of  the  peoples  in 
the  advancing  civilization  of  the  world.  This  is 
God's  world. 

VI 

TRANSFER  OF   SPIRIT,   NOT  FORMS,   OF  CIVILIZATION 

Now,  if  there  is  to  be  loyalty  to  this  great  guid- 
ing principle  of  reverence  for  personality,  it  will 
follow  inevitably  that  the  ultimate  world  goal  in 
civilization  cannot  mean  that  the  West  should 
merely  press  in  upon  the  Orient  and  the  less 
advanced  peoples,  as  something  fully  completed 
and  final,  the  precise  forms  of  its  own  civiUzation, 
whether  on  its  economic  or  religious  side. 

In  the  first  place,  we  may  not  calmly  assume 
that  we  have  exhausted  the  content  of  the  under- 
lying principles  of  our  civilization,  or  have  em- 
bodied them  in  any  sphere  in  their  sole  or  final 
forms.  In  the  second  place,  the  very  ground 
principle  of  our  civiHzation  —  reverence  for  per- 
sonality —  forbids  such  an  assumption,  and  should 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE   WORLD     375 

make  us  certain  rather  that  the  other  peoples  to 
whom  we  go  will  have  much  to  contribute  to  the 
civilization  of  the  world,  through  their  own  natural 
unforced  reaction  upon  those  moral  and  religious 
principles  that  underlie  our  whole  civilization. 
Is  it  possible  for  any  one  but  the  fool  to  doubt, 
however  clearly  one  may  see  their  deep  need  of 
the  Christian  faith,  that  the  great  civilizations  of 
India  and  China  and  Japan  shall  have  most  sig- 
nificant contributions  to  make  to  the  ultimate 
world  civilization?  Though  this  will  not  be  by 
the  mechanical  transplantation  of  their  philosoph- 
ical and  religious  systems  and  resulting  institu- 
tions ;  but  by  a  reaction,  as  natural  and  as  com- 
pletely free  as  our  own,  upon  those  great  moral 
and  religious  principles  which  have  proved  them- 
selves essential  and  determining  in  the  progress  of 
the  race. 

In  all  our  own  intercourse,  therefore,  whether 
commercial  or  religious,  with  the  Orient  and  with 
all  the  less  advanced  peoples,  we  are  to  be  scrupu- 
lously guided  at  every  point  by  this  principle  of 
reverence  for  personality. 

This  will  mean,  first  of  all,  scrupulous  respect 
for  the  liberty  and  person  of  the  individuals  con- 
cerned, and  may  lead  to  some  such  surprises  as 


376     THE   MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

those  that  have  arisen  in  the  labor  situation  in  the 
PhiHppines,  of  which  Millard  says:  "Large  em- 
ployers of  labor  in  the  Islands  will  now  discharge 
a  foreign  superintendent  or  foreman  who  shows  a 
disposition  to  be  arrogant  and  truculent.  To 
strike  a  native  workman  means  instant  discharge. 
Men  who  direct  this  work  have  come  to  realize 
that  patience  and  consideration  will  go  much 
further  in  handhng  native  labor  than  rough  dis- 
plays of  authority,  and  a  foreign  foreman  or 
superintendent  who  cannot  adapt  his  conduct  to 
this  theory  is  useless."  And,  he  adds :  ''I  regard 
it  as  an  encouraging  sign  that  of  the  many  Ameri- 
cans who  employ  Filipinos  on  a  large  scale,  whom 
I  questioned  about  their  capacity,  not  one  gave  a 
pessimistic  account  of  them."  ^ 

This  guiding  principle  of  reverence  for  person- 
ality would,  also,  mean  that  all  our  dealings  with 
the  Orient  would  be  characterized  by  that  sym- 
pathetic entering  into  their  history  and  civiliza- 
tion and  ideals,  and  that  appreciation  and  careful 
preservation  of  the  best  in  their  historical  in- 
heritance, to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made.  Indeed,  the  immense  importance  of  pre- 
serving this  best  in  the  inheritance  of  any  people 

^  America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Question,  pp.  471,  474. 


CIVILIZATION — ITS   SPREAD    OVER   THE   WORLD     377 

may  well  make  us  patient  even  with  those  reac- 
tionary movements,  like  that  of  the  Arya  Somaj 
in  India,  that  sometimes  seem  to  impede  the 
progress  of  the  newer  ideas. 

It  is  important,  also,  that  the  representative  of 
Western  civilization,  and  particularly  the  mis- 
sionary, should  realize,  as  has  already,  perhaps, 
been  sufficiently  implied,  that  the  best  of  a  people's 
past  cannot  be  preserved  merely  by  the  selection 
of  the  outsider,  however  sympathetic  he  strives 
to  make  his  approach ;  but  that  the  people  them- 
selves must  have  the  largest  opportunity  for  honest, 
unforced  individual  and  national  reaction  upon  their 
own  past,  and  upon  the  facts  and  ideals  of  historical 
civilization  and  of  Christianity.  Here  again,  it 
is  obvious  that  the  missionary  cannot  fairly  or 
honestly  withhold  from  those  to  whom  he  ministers 
the  results  of  scientific  and  Biblical  scholarship. 

This  scrupulous  and  delicate  reverence  for  per- 
sonahty  should,  above  all,  characterize  our  mis- 
sionary effort,  for  the  very  reason  that  one  cannot 
be  disloyal  to  this  central  principle  of  Christ's, 
without  disloyalty  to  Christ  himself.  He  lays  no 
religion  upon  men  from  without ;  he  invokes  it 
from  within  men.  He  compels  by  no  external 
authority;     he    calls    out    the    free    assent.     He 


378     THE    MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHALLENGE 

reigns  truly  only  where  he  is  chosen  to  reign. 
Absolute  loyalty  to  Christ's  principle  of  the  price- 
less value  and  sacredness  of  the  individual  person 
—  this  is  the  true  white  man's  burden  in  the  ad- 
vancing civilization  of  the  world. 

"Take  up  the  white  man's  burden  — 
In  patience  to  abide, 
To  veil  the  threat  of  terror 
And  check  the  show  of  pride ; 
By  open  speech  and  simple, 
An  hundred  times  made  plain, 
To  seek  another's  profit, 
And  work  another's  gain. 

"Take  up  the  white  man's  burden  — 
Ye  dare  not  stoop  to  less  — 
Nor  caU  too  loud  on  Freedom 
To  cloak  your  weariness ; 
By  aU  ye  cry  or  whisper, 
By  aU  ye  leave  or  do, 
The  silent,  sullen  peoples 
Shall  weigh  your  Gods  and  you." 

VII 

RELIGIOUS  CONVICTION  NEEDED  IN  INTERNATIONAL 
RELATIONS 

But  all  this  we  shall  not  be  able  to  do,  unless 
we  hold  this  principle  of  reverence  for  personality, 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD      379 

not  only  as  an  ethical  but  also  as  a  deeply  religious 
conviction. 

In  this  world-task  we  need  peculiarly  an  un- 
shaken faith,  permeating  our  whole  life.  We 
need  the  conviction  that  "the  universe  is  on  the 
side  of  the  will,"  that  God  wills  that  which  we 
seek.  And  we  need  this,  not  merely  because  this 
principle  of  the  priceless  value  and  sacredness  of 
the  individual  person  first  came  into  the  world, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  from  Christ;  but  because  for 
him  it  did,  and  for  us  it  must,  root  in  the  sense 
of  God  as  Father  of  all.  Only  if  we  believe  that, 
can  we  also  believe  that  every  man  is  a  child  of 
God  with  the  will  of  God  revealed  in  his  very 
nature;  that  each  has  his  own  divine  calling  in- 
volved in  that  God-given  individuality ;  that  never 
may  even  the  weakest  individual,  therefore,  be 
merely  dominated  by  another;  and  that  every 
soul  has  its  own  partial  but  unique  revelation  of 
God,  as  well  as,  and  therefore,  its  own  unique 
service  of  men. 

Only  such  a  vital  religious  faith  can  give  a 
permanent  and  fundamental  reason  for  reverence 
for  the  individual  person,  and  Eucken  is  right  in 
his  insistence  that  any  philosophical  theory  of 
personalism  is   quite  insufficient   that  is   not   re- 


380     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

Hgiously  based.  The  final  duty  of  the  individual, 
thus,  is  that  he  should  be  absolutely  and  com- 
pletely faithful  to  the  calling  of  God  involved  in 
his  own  individuality,  and  vigorously  cooperate 
with  God  in  the  performance  of  that  calling. 
And  all  society  must  cooperate  with  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  same  end.  All  our  democratic  prin- 
ciples go  back  to  this.  For  the  most  fruitful 
cooperation,  as  we  have  seen,  there  must  be  the 
honest,  complete  contribution  of  each  individual; 
and  that  there  should  be  full  freedom  for  this 
complete  contribution  of  the  individual,  all  must 
cooperate,  in  the  religious  feeling  that  the  divine 
voice  in  every  man  must  have  its  hearing. 

The  same  principle  holds  for  the  individual 
peoples  and  nations.  The  ultimate  world's  civili- 
zation should  not  lose  the  pecuHar  contribution 
of  each.  But  we  shall  not  be  deeply  concerned 
therewith  unless  we  see,  here  too,  the  will  of  God. 
The  men  who  know  what  reverence  for  personality 
means  cannot  see  treatment  Hke  that  of  Finland 
by  Russia,  or  even  much  milder  blottings  out  of  a 
people,  without  the  sense  of  something  essentially 
irreligious  and  even  blasphemous.  In  all  high 
patriotism  there  is  a  genuine  religious  element; 
for  every  people  worth  while  has  had  some  sense 


CIVILIZATION  —  ITS    SPREAD    OVER   THE   WORLD     38 1 

of  divine  calling  and  destiny.  To  that  divine 
calling  and  destiny  not  only  are  they  bound  to  be 
true ;  but  every  other  people  is  bound  also  to  help 
them  to  fulfill  that  calHng  and  destiny ;  for  if  that 
fails,  not  only  will  this  particular  people  lose,  but 
the  whole  world-life. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
calling  of  America  connects,  most  closely  of  all, 
with  thoroughgoing  recognition  of  this  principle 
which  is  the  root  of  all  our  civilization  and  of  all 
our  advance,  —  reverence  for  personality.  It  has 
probably  had  its  way  in  American  life  more  com- 
pletely than  in  the  life  of  any  other  great  nation. 
We  have  been  again  and  again  inconsistent  enough 
in  our  expression  of  it,  and  seem  many  times, 
rather  unconsciously,  to  have  done  its  bidding. 
However,  it  is  difficult  to  doubt  that  Kidd  is  right 
in  seeing  something  far  more  than  mere  national- 
ism at  work  in  the  development  of  the  United 
States.  "The  cause  is,  we  see,  simply  the  same 
deep-l)ang  organic  cause  which  has  made  the 
population  of  the  United  States  a  single  people ; 
which  decided  at  the  beginning  that  the  original 
States  should  not  set  up  barriers  against  each 
other ;  which  later,  and  at  a  supreme  crisis  of 
their  existence,  prevented  them  from  breaking  up 


382     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

into  two  separate  nationalities.  It  is  the  cause 
which  has  driven  the  same  people  to  absorb  into 
this  unity,  and  to  digest  with  a  rapidity  and  com- 
pleteness elsewhere  unknown  the  various  frag- 
ments of  the  Latin  civilizations  with  which  they 
were  originally  surrounded.  It  is  the  cause 
which  has  driven  them  to  absorb  with  equal 
rapidity,  and  to  build  up  into  a  new  social  order, 
the  millions  which  Europe  has  continued  to  pour 
upon  them.  But  in  all  this  we  must  realize  that 
it  is  no  mere  expansion  of  a  race  or  of  a  nationality 
we  are  watching  here.  It  is  the  conquering  march 
of  principles  becoming  conscious  —  the  principles 
born  into  the  world  through  the  long  stress  of  the 
process  we  have  been  describing  throughout."  ^ 
The  principles  of  which  Mr.  Kidd  here  speaks 
may  be  best  expressed  in  the  great  single  guiding 
principle  of  reverence  for  personality,  as  expressed 
both  in  the  sense  of  the  organic  unity  of  men,  and 
in  respect  for  the  freedom  and  individuality  of 
the  single  person. 

John  Hay's  insistence  that  American  diplomacy 

intends  to  be  a  diplomacy  simply  of  the  Golden 

Rule  voices  a  like  conviction ;    and    led  naturally 

to  his  declaration  of  American  policy  in  the  Far 

*  Principles  of  Western  Civilization,  pp.  392,  393. 


CIVILIZATION — ITS    SPREAD    OVER    THE    WORLD     383 

East  as  that  of  the  Open  Door,  and  of  respect  for 
the  integrity  of  China.  It  was  supplemented  by 
the  conviction,  underlying  the  American  policy  in 
the  PhiUppines,  that  no  nation  had  the  right 
merely  to  exploit  another  people  for  its  own 
benefit,  but  must  pledge  itself  to  bring  that  other 
people  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  the  largest  measure 
of  self-government.  Whatever  failures  there  may 
have  been  on  the  part  of  individuals  or  of  the 
nation  in  the  expression  of  this  guiding  principle, 
it  remains  true  that  the  secret  of  our  very  life  lies 
hid  in  it.  Let  us  be  sure  that  without  persistent 
religious  faith  in  this  principle  of  reverence  for  the 
person,  and  faith  that  God  himself  has  called  us 
in  peculiar  degree  to  lead  in  its  embodiment,  we 
shall  fail  in  our  true  task  as  a  nation. 

But  we  cannot  be  true  to  it  without  purging 
ourselves  of  many  inconsistencies  of  which  at 
present  we  are  paradoxically  proud.  It  can 
hardly  be  true,  for  example,  that  that  people  that 
has  within  itself  the  largest  area  of  free  trade  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  should  continue  forever 
to  erect  great  tariff  barriers  between  itself  and 
other  peoples.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  the 
people,  the  root  principle  of  whose  civilization  is 
reverence  for  the  person  as  such,  should  continue 


384     THE   MORAL   AND   RELIGIOUS   CHALLENGE 

forever  to  be  moved  by  mean  and  petty  race  preju- 
dice. And  it  is  hardly  conceivable,  either,  that  the 
people  whose  unique  freedom  has  made  possible 
the  intensest  and  most  rapid  economic  develop- 
ment the  world  has  seen,  should  in  the  outcome 
find  itself  dominated  by  an  oligarchy  of  wealth; 
though  that  oligarchical  control  may  have  been 
nowhere  directly  sought.  Doubtless  we  have  mis- 
taken, at  many  points,  the  real  meaning  and 
application  of  the  principles  by  which  we  have 
supposed  ourselves  to  be  moved ;  but  we  may  still 
have  religious  faith  to  beHeve  that  in  a  larger 
sense  than  men  have  ever  yet  conceived,  govern- 
ment of  the  people  and  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people,  is  not  to  perish  from  the  earth. 

But  whether  or  not  it  is  to  be  given  to  America, 
or  to  the  English-speaking  peoples  as  a  whole,  or 
to  the  still  broader  Teutonic  races,  or  to  some 
other  people  or  group  of  peoples,  —  to  lead  in  the 
world's  civilization  of  the  future;  we  may  not 
doubt  that  reverence  for  personality  will  continue 
the  guiding  principle  of  all  human  progress,  and 
that  we  are  advancing  toward  the  goal  of  the 
civilization  in  which  that  principle  shall  be  com- 
pletely regnant. 


INDEX 


Abuses,  economic,  335. 

Accountability,  responsibility  and, 
Puritan's  feeling  of,  245. 

Acton,  Lord,  148. 

Addams,  Jane,  305,  341. 

Africa,  51 ;  democratic  tendency 
in  South  Africa,  58;  commercial 
pressure  on  diplomatic  action 
in,  61. 

America  and  the  Far  Eastern  Ques- 
tion, Millard,  48,  55,  68,  71, 
357.376. 

American    Commonwealth,     Bryce, 

33- 

Ancestor-worship,  368. 

Ancient  exclusive  state,  196;  reli- 
gious basis  of,  198;  defects  of, 
203 ;  moral  weakness  of,  met, 
20S. 

Anglo- Japanese  Treaty,  67. 

Anglo-Saxon,  290. 

Antagonisms,  race,  283  ff. 

Arbitration,  international,  progress 
of,  64. 

Aristotle,  193. 

Arnold,  Dr.,  250. 

Arya  Somaj,  377. 

Asceticism,  213. 

Association  of  races,  33. 

Australia,  immigration  in,  ^2 ', 
Great  Britain's  treatment  of,  55. 

Authority  in  religion,  122,  156. 

Balance  of  trade,  239. 

Basis   of  Ascendancy,   The,  Edgar 

Gardner  Murphy,  302. 
Beatitude,    the    first,    quality    of, 

117. 
Bergson,  154. 
Blakeslee,  China  and  the  Far  East, 

57,  58. 
Blundschli,  Mahafify  and,  193. 


Body,  not  evil  per  se,  269. 

Boxer  revolution,  367. 

Boy  and  the  Angel,  The,  Browning, 

II. 
Breadth,     false     conceptions     of, 

252  fif. ;    and  complexity  of  life, 

266. 
Break-up  of  China,  The,  367. 
Browning,  The  Boy  and  the  Angel, 

II. 
Bruce,  Moral  Order  of  the  World, 

The    Providential    Order    of    the 

World,  186. 
Bryce,     20;     American    Comtnon- 

wealth,  33,  359. 
Budget,  English,  84. 

Cairnes,  Christianity  in  the  Modern 
World,  20. 

Canada,  immigration  in,  2>3, ',  Great 
Britain's  treatment  of,  55. 

"Cannonism,"  74. 

Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Teaching,  99. 

Carnegie  Institution  of  Washing- 
ton, 99. 

Certain  Blindness  in  Human  Na- 
ture, On  a,  James,  5. 

Challenge  of  the  City,  The,  Strong, 
22,  27,  28. 

Chamberlain,  Basil  Hall,  352,  369; 
Things  Japanese,  370. 

Changes  among  the  nations,  46  ff. 

Charity,  public  and  private,  100. 

China,  condition  of  women  in,  42 ; 
Japan's  relation  to,  49 ;  com- 
mercial pressure  on  diplomatic 
action  in,  61 ;  reform  movement 
in,  69 ;  the  future  of,  73  ;  Western 
education  in,  78;  commercial 
situation  in,  366;  exploitation 
of,  367. 


38s 


386 


INDEX 


China,  The  Break-up  of,  367. 

China  and  the  Far  East,  Blakeslee, 
57,  S8. 

Christianity  in  the  Modern  World, 
Cairnes,  20. 

Chronology,  134. 

Church,  dominion  of,  214. 

Cities,  growth  of,  26. 

Citizenship  in  ancient  state,  ig2. 

Civilization,  ancient  and  modern, 
contrasted,  igi ;  Western,  spread 
over  the  world,  344;  European, 
347- 

College  dissipation  and  lawlessness, 
277. 

College  Man  and  College  Woman, 
The,  Hyde,  7. 

Collier's,  287. 

Coming  Struggle  in  Eastern  Asia, 
Weale,  55,  358. 

Commerce,  Western,  in  Orient,  345  ; 
world-wide  extension  of,  358. 

Commercial  pressure  on  diplo- 
matic action,  60  ff. 

Commission,  Puritan's  conviction 
of,  244. 

Comparative  religion,  113;  moral 
and  religious  significance  of, 
146 ;  development  of  discrim- 
inating tolerance  in,  147 ;  em- 
phasis on  the  permanence  of 
religion,  147. 

Complex  relations  in  modern  life, 
81. 

Concentration  of  wealth,  323  ff. 

Conciliation  in  international  rela- 
tions, 173. 

Conflict  of  Color,  The,  Weale,  34, 
S3- 

Congo  State,  63. 

Connections,  closer,  30. 

Conscience,  freedom  of,  163,  195, 
216. 

Conservation,  national,  of  natural 
resources,  24;  in  Germany, 
Switzerland,  Japan,  25. 

Conservatism,  prejudiced,  danger 
of,  177. 

Constable,  81. 


Constitutional  government,  strug- 
gle for,  in  Asia,  58. 

Contagious  diseases,  control  of,  37. 

Control,  scientific  method  of,  115. 

Conviction,  lack  of,  254. 

Coolidge,  36,  52. 

Cooperation,  in  modern  enter- 
prises, qualities  necessary  for, 
30;  forced  81,  104;  great 
achievements  through,  98,  105. 

Courtney,  231. 

Crete,  51. 

Criticism,  historical,  138,  147,  156. 

Croly,  The  Promise  of  American 
Life,  275,  312,  341. 

Cuba,  63. 

"Daddy  Jack,"  290. 

Dante,  239. 

Darwin,  Origin  of  Species,  114. 

Democracy,  a  truer,  309  ff. 

Democracy  and  Social  Ethics,  Jane 

Addams,  341. 
Democratic  trend   in  the  nations, 

57- 
Devine,  340. 
Diplomacy,       commercial,        and 

money  power  in,  61. 
Discrimination,  lack  of,  253. 
Dissipation,  college,  277. 
Divine  calling,  Puritan's  conviction 

of,  244. 
Divorce,  171. 

Drinkwater,  John,  quoted,  242. 
Drummond,  18. 
Du  Bois,  Patterson,  304. 

Ecce  Homo,  9,  307. 

Economic  development,  19;  solid- 
arity, 20 ;  abuses,  335  ;  through- 
out world,  343  ff. 

Education,  extension  of,  39 ;  uni- 
versal, 82 ;  universal  trend  to- 
ward, 109. 

Efficiency,  in  moral  and  religious 
education,  131;    personal,  273. 

Egypt,  SI,  63. 

Emerson,  286. 

Encouragement,   the   elements   of, 


INDEX 


387 


in  new  external  world,  g8  ff.  ;  in 
new  inner  world,  182  ff. 

Enc.  Brit.,  art.  "Sociology,"  Kidd, 
65. 

Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics, 
148. 

Endowed  inquiries,  service  of,  99. 

Estheticism,  false,  259. 

Ethics  oj  Jesus,  King,  118,  125. 

Eucken,  The  Meaning  and  Value 
of  Life,  82,  87,  89,  152,  15s.  247- 

Evolution,  natural  science  and, 
113,  114;  bearing  on  morals, 
132 ;  effect  on  modern  phi- 
losophy, 154. 

External  conditions  and  their 
challenge,  15,  77  ff. 

Fairbairn,  Principal,  344. 

Fairchild,  Milton,  185. 

False     tolerance     reaction     from, 

251- 

Far-Eastern  Question,  48;  pres- 
sure of,  67 ;   chief  factors  in,  68. 

Fatherhood  of  God,  abuse  of  doc- 
trine, 249. 

Federal  Bureau  of  Labor,  337. 

Feminine  aristocracy  in  America, 

43- 
Fichte,  12. 
Filipinos,  57,  376. 
Finland,  rise  of  the  native  in,  51; 

Russia's  treatment  of,  54,  380. 
Fiske,  John,  iii. 
FitzGerald,  Omar  Khayyam,  260. 
Forces,  monopolizing  natural,  316. 
Forces  of  nature,  conquest  of,  18. 
Foreign  missionary  movement,  43, 

346. 
Formosa,  immigration  in,  33 ;    rise 

of  native  in,  51. 
Foster,  G.  B.,  156. 
Foster,  J.  W.,  Japanese  War  Scare, 

67. 
France,  use  of  arbitration  by,  65. 
Franchise,  extension  of,  220. 
Franco-Japanese  Treaty,  72. 
Freedom   of  conscience,   163,   195, 

216. 


Freedom  of  investigation,  119,  163, 

195- 
Fremantle,  267. 
Future  of  China,  The,  Jameson  and 

Kennan,  73. 

Gambling  spirit  among  women, 
43- 

Genealogy,  134. 

General  Education  Board,  99. 

George  Junior  Republic,  185. 

Germany,  conservation  in,  25; 
use  of  arbitration  by,  65. 

Giford  Lectures,  148. 

Golden  Rule,  10,  21,  135,  382. 

Goods,  relative,  276. 

Great  Britain,  treatment  of  col- 
onies, 55  ;   use  of  arbitration  by, 

65. 
Greek  and  Roman  state,  193. 
GrifEs,    The   Japanese   Nation   in 

Evolution,  363. 

Hague  Tribunal,  64. 

Hall,  Stanley,  291,  293, 

Happiness,  work  and,  86. 

Harnack,  8. 

Harrison,  Peace  or  War,  East  of 
Baikal,  55,  68. 

Hay,  John,  69,  382. 

Hayashi  Viscount,  72. 

Hearn,  Japan,  an  Interpretation, 
205,  353,  3S4>  356,  358.  371- 

Hegel,  5.  113- 

Heraldry,  134. 

Herder,  114. 

Herrmann,  168,  211. 

Hibbert  Foundation,  148. 

Hibbert  Journal,  148. 

Hibbert  Lectures,  148. 

Historical  criticism,  138,  147,  156. 

Historical  spirit,  113,  134;  moral 
significance  of,  135;  religious 
significance  of,  137. 

Historical  trend  of  Western  civili- 
zation, lessons  of,  189  ff. 

History,  Enc.  Brit.,  135. 

House  of  Lords  in  England,  58. 

Howison,  5. 


388 


INDEX 


Human  progress,  guiding  prin- 
ciples in,  164. 

Hyde,  The  College  Man  and  the 
College  Wo  man,  7. 

Hygiene,  mental  and  moral,  273. 

Ideal  realm,  reality  in,  125. 

Ideals,  conflicting,  of  our  time,  89, 
178;  definiteness  and  concrete- 
ness  of,  through  psychology,  140. 

Immigration,  ^s,  35 ;  Japanese 
law  on,  48. 

Imperial  Gazaleer,  141. 

Independent,  The,  294. 

India,  condition  of  women  in, 
42;  native  movements  in,  51; 
commercial  pressure  on  diplo- 
matic action  in,  61. 

Inner  health  movement,  141. 

Integrity  of  life,  Christ's  demand 
for,  117. 

Intellectualism,  mere  narrow,  255. 

Interdependence  and  cooperation 
in  mo  lorn  society,  81. 

International  Conciliation,  The  Jap- 
anese War  Scare,  J.  W.  Foster, 
67. 

International  congress  on  moral 
education,  149. 

International  criticism,  63. 

International  life,  guiding  prin- 
ciples in,  343  ff. 

International  relations,  reverence 
for  personality  in,  378. 

Ireland,  51;  Great  Britain's  treat- 
ment of,  55- 

Is  Goodness  Interesting,  232. 

Jackson,  President,  31. 

James,  William,  5,  88. 

Jameson,  C.  D.,  The  Future  of 
China,  73. 

Japan,  an  Interpretation,  Hearn, 
20s,  353.  354,  356,  358,  371- 

Japan,  conservation  in,  25 ;  con- 
dition of  women  in,  42  ;  progress 
of,  46  fi. ;  immigration,  restric- 
tion in,  48  ;  use  of  arbitration  by, 
65;  diplomatic  policy,  71;  adop- 


tion of  Western  civilization,  349 ; 
tested  by  scientific  spirit,  354; 
conditions  in,  356;  police  sys- 
tem in,  358;  commercial  sit- 
uation in,  361 ;  individual  lib- 
erty in,  362  ;  industrial  weakness 
of,  363  ;  religious  need  of,  363. 

Japanese  in  Manchuria,  The, 
J.  W.  Jenks,  67,  72. 

Japanese  Nation  in  Evolution,  The, 
GrifBs,  363. 

Japanese  War  Scare,  The,  J.  W. 
Foster,  67. 

Jenks,  J.  W.,  The  Japanese  in 
Manchuria,  67,  72. 

Jesus,  reverence  of,  3,  5;  teaching 
of,  118,  123,  124,  161. 

Jew,  the  modern,  292,  294. 

"John  Bull  attitude,"  290. 

Johnston,  Sir  Harry,  on  The  Rise 
of  the  Native,  51,  288,  369. 

Kant,  5,  240,  301. 

Kennan,  G.,  73. 

Kidd,  17;  Principles  of  Western 
Civilization,  23,  61,  loi,  113,  180, 
189,  190,  192,  193,  194,  195,  197, 
198,  199,  201,  212,  215,  219, 
220,  221,  223,  231,  382;  art. 
"  Sociology,"  Enc.  Brit.,  66. 

King,  Henry  C,  Rational  Living, 
3,  141,  168;  Laws  of  Friendship, 
Ethics  of  Jesus,  118,  125;  Recon- 
struction in  Theology,  133. 

Kingsley,  202. 

Kinnosuki,  Adachi,  68. 

Kipling,  102,  281,  378. 

Korea,  49,  rise  of  the  native  in, 
5 1 ;  Japan's  treatment  of,  54. 

Labor,  division  of,  29,  105. 

Labor  unions,  337. 

Law,    emphasis  on,    127;    lack  of 

sense  of,  240. 
Law,  in  moral  and  spiritual  world, 

lack  of  sense  of,   90 ;    of  man's 

nature,  139. 
Lawlessness,  college,  277;    a  cause 

of,  332. 


INDEX 


389 


Laws  of  Friendship,  King,  H.  C, 

3- 

Leadership,  need  of  unselfish,  97. 

Lecky,  214. 

Legislation,  control  of,  ^zz- 

Leisure,  possibility  of,  80 ;  lack  of, 
88,  los;   "conspicuous,"  336. 

Liberia,  63. 

Liberty  of  others,  respect  for,  303. 

Liddon,  247. 

Life,  278. 

Life,  international,  guiding  prin- 
ciples in,  343  ff. 

Lincoln,  299. 

Livingstone,  292. 

Lotze,  R.  H.,  133. 

Lotze,  The  Microcosmus,  6,  223, 
227,  262. 

Love,  genuine  and  reverent,  266. 

Lowell,  239. 

Madagascar,  rise  of  the  native 
in,  51;    France's  aggressions  in, 

54- 
Mahaffy  and  Bluntschli,  193. 
Maladjustment,  social,  331. 
Manchester       economic       school, 

217  £f. 
Manchuria,  immigration  in,  33. 
Marshall,  Principles  of  Economics, 

343- 
Martineau,  243. 
Materialism,     collapse     of,      155; 

danger  of,  175. 
Meaning  and   Value  of  Life,   The, 

Euken,  82,  87,  89,  152,  155,  247. 
Mental  and  moral  hygiene,  273. 
Merit,  work  of,  269. 
Mexico,  use  of  arbitration  by,  65. 
Microcosmus,    Lotze,    6,   223,   227, 

262. 
Militarism.  66. 
Military  efficiency,  of  English,  203  ; 

qualities  demanded,  229. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  112,  150. 
Millard,     America     and    the    Far 

Eastern    Question,    48,    ss,    68, 
71,  357,  376. 
Miller,  Professor  Kelly,  294. 


Missionary  movement,  foreign, 
43,  346. 

Modern  age,  outstanding  features 
of,  194. 

Modern  science,  false  conceptions 
of,  133,  IS3- 

Modern  spirit,  the  great  positives 
of,  26s  ff. 

Mommsen,  192. 

Money  power,  in  diplomacy,  61. 

Moral  and  religious  training,  need 
of,  93;  efficiency  in,  131;  influ- 
ence of  social  consciousness  in, 
183. 

Moral  and  spiritual  life,  inward- 
ness of,  183. 

Moral  Order  of  the  World,  The, 
Bruce,  186. 

Moral  standards,  rise  of,  in  United 
States,  74. 

Movements  of  the  Time,  summary, 
16. 

Muirhead,  150. 

Miinsterberg,  121. 

Murphy,  Edgar  Gardner,  The 
Basis  of  Ascendancy,  302. 

Nash,  H.  S.,  95,  149- 
National  conservation,  24. 
National    success,     standards    of, 

239- 

Natural  forces,  a  democratic 
policy  in  conquest  of,  316. 

Natural  resources,  control  of,  319. 

Natural  science  and  evolution, 
114  ff. ;  bearing  on  morals  and 
religion,  132. 

Nearing,  Social  Adjustment,  341. 

Negro  in  the  New  World,  The,  Sir 
Harry  Johnston,  289. 

Negro  music,  289. 

Negro  problem,  33,  36. 

Negro  race,  283  ff. ;  need  of  self- 
respect,  286;  music  of,  289; 
religious  and  emotional  endow- 
ment, 291 ;  necessity  of  self- 
development,  '300. 

Nervous  over-activity  in  American 
life,  237. 


390 


INDEX 


New  Puritanism,  235  ff. 
Nihilism,  46;  growth  of,  59. 
Numismatics,  135. 

Ohio  State  Reformatory,  185. 
Omar  Khayyam,  FitzGerald,  260. 
On  a  Certain  Blindness  in  Human 

Nature,  James,  5. 
Orient,  need  of  emphasis  of  new 

psychology  in,  141. 
Oriental  Information  Bureau,  63. 
Origin  of  Species,  Darwin,  114. 
Others,  respect  for  liberty  of,  303 ; 

personality  of,  305. 
Outlook,  The,  67,  72,  73. 

Paleography,  135. 

Panama,  63. 

Passion  for  material  comfort,  83, 
238. 

"Passive  virtues,"  232. 

Paul,  129. 

Peabody  Education  Fund,  99. 

Peace  of  War  East  of  Baikal,  55,  68. 

Peile,  187. 

Peril  of  lower  attainment,  86. 

Persia,  national  movements  in, 
78. 

Personality,  reverence  for,  i ;  Jesus 
and,  3 ;  a  fundamental  moral 
principle,  s ;  Howison  on,  5  ; 
Hegel  on,  5 ;  James  on,  5 ; 
Lotze  on,  s ;  Royce  on,  6 ;  a 
basic  Christian  assumption,  8; 
what  the  principle  demands,  10 ; 
value  and  sacredness  of  the 
person,  13 ;  fundamental  in 
human  progress,  165  ;  as  a  reli- 
gious conviction,  205 ;  demand 
for  fighting  virtues,  228;  bear- 
ing on  negro  problem,  283 ;  re- 
spect for  liberty  of  others,  303 ; 
respect  for  personality  of,  305 ; 
how  produced,  307 ;  in  national 
policies,  341 ;  touchstone  of 
civilization,  354 ;  application 
of  in  Orient,  375  ff. ;  in  inter- 
national relations,  378;  guiding 
principle  of  future,  384. 


Philippines,  rise  of  the  native  in, 
51;  America's  policy  in,  57; 
labor  situation  in,  376. 

Philology,  135. 

Philosophical  tendencies  of  modern 
times,  153. 

"Physical  conscience,"  104,  132. 

Pittsburg  Survey,  337. 

Plato,  193. 

Poland,  Prussian,  Germany's  treat- 
ment of,  54. 

Police  power  of  nations,  62. 

Positives,  of  the  modern  spirit,  the 
great,  265  ff. 

Press,  influence  of,  107;  function 
as  gatherer  of  news,  108. 

Principles  of  Economics,  Marshall, 

343; 

Principles  of  Western  Civilization, 
Kidd,  23,  61,  loi,  113,  180,  189, 
190,  192,  193,  194,  19s,  197, 
198,  199,  201,  212,  215,  219, 
220,  221,  223,  231,  382. 

Problem,  race,  283  ff. 

Promise  of  American  Life,  Croly, 
275,  312,  341- 

Providential  Order  of  the  World, 
The,  Bruce,  186. 

Prudery,  261. 

Prussia,  64. 

Psychology,  the  new,  113,  139; 
world  task  of,  141. 

Public  utihties,  control  of,  321. 

Puritan,  aims  of,  235 ;  sense  of 
God,  243 ;  conviction  of  com- 
mission, 244;  feeling  of  respon- 
sibility and  accountability,  245 ; 
sense  of  significance  and  value 
of  life,  246;  religious  conviction 
of,  247  ;  underestimate  of  beauty, 
259 ;  lack  of  tenderness  and 
love,  narrowness  of  interest, 
false  asceticism,  264. 

Puritanism,  the  new,  235  ff. ;  re- 
action from,  248  ff. ;  the  great 
positives  of,  243  ff. 

Race,  negro,  283. 

Race  prejudice,  34,  90,  96,  283  ff. 


INDEX 


391 


Race  problem,  283  ff-;  guiding 
principle  in  solution  of,  285. 

Races,  association  of,  33 ;  antago- 
nisms of,  2  S3  ff. 

Rae,  John,  83,  238. 

Rational  Living,  King,  3,  141,  168. 

Realism,  false,  256. 

Reconstruction  in  Theology,  King, 
H.  C,  133. 

Reformers,  The,  Kipling,  282. 

Reinsch,  World  Politics,  53. 

Relative  goods,  276. 

Religion,  comparative,  1 13, 146, 147 . 

Religion,  permanence  of,  147, 
motives,  irreplaceable,  140;  in 
collective  life,  344;  world-wide 
extension  of,  358. 

Religious  consciousness  of  the  race, 

157- 

Religious  conviction,  Puritan's 
sense  of,  247;  in  international 
relations,   378. 

Religious  Education  Association, 
186. 

Religious  education,  efSciency  in, 
131;  of  future,  151;  new 
methods  in,  185  ;  aim  of,  186. 

Resources,  natural,  control  of,  3ig. 

Respect  for  liberty  of  others,  303. 

Responsibility  and  accountability, 
Puritan's  feeling  of,  245. 

Reverence  for  personality,  i ;  Jesus 
and,  3 ;  a  fundamental  moral 
principle,  5 ;  Howison  on,  s ; 
Hegel  on,  5  ;  James  on,  5  ;  Lotze 
on,  s ;  Royce  on,  6 ;  a  basic 
Christian  assumption,  8;  what 
the  principle  demands,  10;  value 
and  sacredness  of  the  person, 
13 ;  fundamental  in  human 
progress,  165  ;  as  a  religious  con- 
viction, 205  ;  demand  for  fight- 
ing virtues,  228;  bearing  on 
negro  problem,  283 ;  respect 
for  liberty  of  others,  303 ;  re- 
spect for  personality  of,  305 ; 
how  produced,  307 ;  in  national 
policies,  341 ;  touchstone  of 
civilization,     354 ;      application 


of  in  Orient,  375  ff. ;  in  inter- 
national relations,  378;  guiding 
principle  of  future,  384. 

Review  of  Reviews,  55. 

Rise  of  the  Native,  Sir  Harry  John- 
ston, SI,  288,  369. 

Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical 
Research,  99. 

Romanes,  180. 

Roosevelt,  T.,  103. 

Royce,  6. 

Rugby,  250. 

Russell  Sage  Foundation,  99. 

Russia,  nihilism  in,  59;  consti- 
tutional government  in,  78. 

Russo-Japanese  War  Treaty,  69. 

Sabatier,  122,  148,  156. 
Sacred  books  of  the  East,  148. 
Science,  modern,  false  conceptions 

of,  133,  153- 

Scientific  discoveries  for  the  better- 
ment of  human  life,  37. 

Scientific  spirit,  115;  moral  sig- 
nificance of,  116;  religious  sig- 
nificance of,  118;  and  the  social 
consciousness,  183. 

Scientific  study  of  human  condi- 
tions, 104. 

Scotland,  55. 

Scudder,  Miss,  172. 

Seal  fur  conference,  64. 

Seeley,  150. 

Self-denial,  true  place  of,  268; 
valuable  for  others,  272. 

Self-discipline,  273. 

Self-respect,  10;  need  of,  by  whites, 
and  blacks,  297. 

Sentimentalism,  Puritan  reaction 
from,  248. 

Siege  of  Paris,  64. 

Significance  and  value  of  life, 
Puritan's  sense  of,  246. 

Simplicity  of  life,  need  of,  94. 

Slater,  John  F.,  Fund,  gg. 

Social  Adjustment,  Nearing,  341. 

Social  consciousness,  elements  of, 
144,  165;  qualities  of,  181;  sci- 
entific spirit  and,  183. 


392 


INDEX 


Social  maladjustments,  331. 
Social  virtues,  the,  demand  for,  95. 
Socialism,  46,  g8 ;   growth  of,  59. 
Socialist  Review,  81. 
"Sociology,"  Kidd,   Enc.  Bril.,  66. 
Sociology,    113;     moral    ideal    of, 

143 ;     laws    of    progress   of    the 

race,  143  ;   contribution  to  moral 

and  religious  life,   144;    human 

progress  shown  in,  164. 
Solidarity,    economic,    Bryce    on, 

20. 
South     Africa,     immigration     in, 

33  ;   democratic  tendency  in,  58. 
Southern  Education  Board,  99. 
Spectator,  The,  242. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  114,  349. 
Sphragistics,  135. 
State,    Greek    and    Roman,    193 ; 

ancient  exclusive,  196. 
Stocks,  watering  of,  335. 
Stone,  Melville  E.,  35. 
Strike,   in  Westmoreland  County, 

Penn.,  337. 
Strong,  The  Challenge  of  the  City, 

22,  27,  28. 
Subjectivism,  123. 
Suffering,  269. 
Sully,  ISO. 

Supererogation,  works  of,  270. 
Swinburne,  260. 

Switzerland,  conservation  in,  25. 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  113. 

Taft,  President  W.  H.,  69 ;  policy 

in    the     Philippines,     69 ;     at 

Shanghi,  369. 
Tariff,  383- 
Theocritus,  239. 
Theological  trend  of  present  day, 

156. 
Theology,     influence     of     modern 

science    on,    157;     in    personal 

terms,  158. 
Things     Japanese,     Chamberlain, 

370- 
Thought,  the  challenge  of  the  inner 
world  of,  III,   159  ff.;    need  of 
time  and,  162. 


Times,  Japan,  72. 

Tolerance,  195,  219;  reaction  from 

false,  251. 
Tropics,  immigration  in,  33. 
Truth,  modern  conceptions  of,  195, 

219. 
Turkey,  revolution  in,  46,  50. 

"Uncle  Remus,"  290. 

Union,  labor,  337. 

United  States   as  a  World  Power, 

Coolidge,  36,  53. 
Unity  of  life  of  man,  268. 
Universal  education,  82. 
Utilitarian  views,  176. 
Utihties,  public,  control  of,  321. 

Value  and  sacredness  of  the  per- 
son, 13. 
Venezuela,   use  of  arbitration  by, 

65. 
Vocation,  Puritan's  conviction  of, 

244. 

Wales,  55. 

War,    the    moral    equipment    for, 

234- 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  11,  288, 
291,  299,  372. 

Waste,  336. 

Weale,  The  Conflict  of  Color,  34,  S3 ; 
The  Coming  Struggle  in  Eastern 
Asia,  55,  358. 

Wealth,  increase  of,  22  ;  staggering 
resources  of,  79;  better  distri- 
bution of,  84;  possibilities  of 
good  through,  98;  control  of 
concentration  of,  323  ff. 

Wells,  H.,  98. 

Western  civilization,  principles  of, 
190;  advances  of,  222;  spread 
over  the  world,  344;  in  Japan, 
349 ;  in  Far  East,  350. 

Western  liberalism,  221. 

Westmoreland  County,  Penn., 
strike  in,  337. 

White  Man's  Burden,  378. 

Whitman,  287. 

Williams,  H.  S.,  132. 


INDEX 


393 


Witte,  Monsieur  de,  54. 
Women,  advancement  of,  41. 
Work  and  happiness,  separation  of, 

86. 
World  movement,  religious,  346. 
World,  new  conceptions  of,  126  £f. ; 

meaning  of  the  new  inner,  160. 


World  Politics,  Reinsch,  S3- 
World's  Chinese  Students'  Journal, 

367- 
World's  Missionary  Conference  of 

1910,  45. 
World's  Work,  68,  96. 
Wundt,  8,  43,  346. 


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